Article Text

Download PDFPDF
Availability of antidotes in Moroccan hospitals: a national survey
  1. Rachid Eljaoudi1,
  2. Youssef Moutaouakkil1,
  3. Badr Adouani1,
  4. Yasmina Tadlaoui2,
  5. Sofia Boukria1,
  6. Mina Ait El Cadi1,
  7. Jamal Lamsaouri2,
  8. Yasser Bousliman1
  1. 1 Pharmacology and Toxicology Department, Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy, Rabat Institute University Mohamed V, Rabat, Morocco
  2. 2 Laboratory of Medicinal Chemistry, Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy, Rabat Institute University Mohamed V, Rabat, Morocco
  1. Correspondence to Professor Rachid Eljaoudi, Pharmacology and Toxicology Department, Université Mohammed V de Rabat Faculté de Médecine et de Pharmacie, Rabat, Morocco; r.eljaoudi{at}um5s.net.ma

Abstract

Aim The lack of availability of antidotes is a challenge for hospitals all over the world. The objective of our study was to investigate the availability of antidotes in Moroccan hospitals.

Methods A cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study was conducted from November 2018 to April 2019. The questionnaire was sent to 25 hospitals in order to investigate the availability of 42 selected antidotes based on the International Programme on Chemical Safety list.

Results The survey response rate was 68%. Of the 42 selected antidotes, 38 (90.5%) were available depending on the hospitals included in the study. We found a strong correlation between the availability of antidotes and hospital bed capacity, and logistic regression analysis revealed that bed capacity is the only factor strongly associated with higher antidote stock levels. Some essential antidotes such as digoxin-specific antibody, protamine sulfate, flumazenil and glucagon were unavailable in many of the small- and medium-sized hospitals, and methylene blue, sodium nitroprussiate, Prussian blue and anti-snake venom were absent in all of the hospitals.

Conclusion Despite the great efforts that have been made to improve the availability of antidotes in Morocco, some of these vital products are still lacking in Moroccan hospitals.

  • emergency medicine
  • critical care
  • clinical medicine
  • health care rationing
  • toxicology

Data availability statement

All data relevant to the study are included in the article or uploaded as supplementary information. Not applicable.

Statistics from Altmetric.com

Request Permissions

If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

Data availability statement

All data relevant to the study are included in the article or uploaded as supplementary information. Not applicable.

View Full Text