Covid-19: Army Pharmacy Caught Off Guard Takes Stock
A year ago, the army pharmacy was given the additional task of procuring and stockpiling protective medical supplies for the health service. The procurement volume multiplied 150-fold within days. The Confederation also admits mistakes - what lessons does it learn from them?
The Armed Forces Pharmacy is the only federal organisation with a wholesale licence and the necessary certifications for the procurement of medical supplies. For this reason, this organisation, which until then had worked exclusively for the armed forces and the federal administration, was entrusted by the Federal Council on 20 March 2020 with a new and additional task as part of the pandemic response: the mandate was to ensure the subsidiary procurement, stockpiling and distribution of medical supplies in accordance with the specifications of the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) for the entire Swiss healthcare system.
Sufficient goods procured in difficult market environment
Overall, the army pharmacy fulfilled its mission, writes the Confederation. At no time were there any gaps in supply from which the health service would have suffered. The Armed Forces had thus made a significant contribution to protecting human life. The army pharmacy succeeded in procuring goods such as masks, disinfectants and respirators in sufficient quantity and quality on a world market where supplies were extremely scarce at the time. For some weeks now, the army pharmacy has also been responsible for vaccination logistics at federal level, i.e. for the receipt, storage and distribution of vaccines to all cantons and the Principality of Liechtenstein.
What mistakes?
The fact that mistakes were made in the procurement of medical supplies was unavoidable in view of the quantities to be procured, the situation on the world market and the novelty and complexity of the task, according to the federal government's media release. At the beginning of the Corona pandemic, the resources, IT equipment and know-how of the army pharmacy were not geared to such a task. These mistakes are now being systematically reviewed and lessons learned. In the interests of transparency, the Armed Forces are also making various relevant documents relating to the procurement of medical supplies publicly available on the web with immediate effect.
Clarification of the future role
From one day to the next, the previous procurement volume of the army pharmacy of 16 million Swiss francs has multiplied by a factor of 150. This also includes new goods that were never in demand before, new logistics routes, handling and stocking requirements. Work is now underway to clarify the future role of the Armed Forces Pharmacy and its interfaces with the Federal Offices of Public Health and National Economic Supply as well as armasuisse, according to the federal government's media release.
Source: Defense group / Confederation
Documents on the procurement of medical supplies can be found here.
