"Prices Tripled, But No Supply" Shortages Leave Nurses Waiting with Alerts On

"We have no choice but to turn on the stock notification and wait, since we don't know when supplies will be available."

For Nurse A at an internal medicine clinic in Seocho-gu, Seoul, checking medical supply shopping malls during breaks in her workday has become an important routine. She said, "In the past, I could buy as many syringes as I needed, but these days, purchases are limited to two or three boxes per specification." She added, "The price, which used to be 7,000 won per box, has now jumped to more than three times that amount."

A box of disposable syringes is placed in an internal medicine consultation room in Jungnang-gu, Seoul. Photo by Jaehyun Park

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Due to the aftermath of the Middle East war shaking up the supply chain of naphtha, a raw material for plastic, even the supply of essential medical consumables like syringes has become unstable. Although the government is cracking down on hoarding, local clinics and hospitals are facing shortages since securing distribution networks has become difficult, partly due to some wholesalers adjusting shipments.

According to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety on April 27, as of 5 p.m. on the 23rd, the same-day shipment volume of syringes stood at 5.58 million units, with inventory levels at 46.38 million units. Since April 15, the Ministry has been announcing daily syringe supply trends at 5 p.m. each day. Production is also being increased, with priority given to supplying clinics for hemodialysis and pediatric departments.

However, due to the difficulty of securing long-term distribution channels, small- and medium-sized clinics and hospitals-many of which rely on online purchases-are still complaining of supply shortages. Nurse B at a pediatric clinic in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province said, "We have secured a month's worth of supplies, so there is no immediate problem, but I am worried about the future," heaving a sigh. A staff member at an internal medicine clinic in Songpa-gu, Seoul also reported, "We used to buy syringes through wholesalers, but I heard that supply has decreased since about a month ago. Now, we can't buy several boxes at once and lately have only been able to get one box at a time."

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Even as of this morning, syringes remained out of stock on some online malls. While small quantities are occasionally restocked, purchase quantities are generally limited. Medical supply shopping malls have posted notices stating that "due to the Middle East conflict, some items may experience price increases and stockouts." As supply remains low and prices rise, whenever restock notifications appear on social media, products are immediately sold out-this situation is being repeated.

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety is currently conducting special crackdowns, having caught 32 companies engaged in illegal acts such as hoarding on April 24, but the shortage of syringes in medical field settings has not yet been resolved. In a recent statement, the Korean Association of Internal Medicine criticized simple monitoring without mid- to long-term measures such as expanding domestic production capacity and implementing a national stockpiling system for essential medical consumables, saying it is ineffective.

As of 9 p.m. on the 24th, all syringe products on a medical consumables specialty online mall are marked as out of stock. Screenshot from the online mall

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The medical community and medical supply industry are pointing to problems in the distribution process. As the supply of raw materials like naphtha has become unstable, some wholesalers have been engaging in "holding" (shipment adjustment), stockpiling syringes in warehouses. An official from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety explained, "We plan to continue monitoring by analyzing the daily reports we receive from manufacturers and sellers on production, sales, inventory, and distribution channels between sellers."

Experts have diagnosed that national-level management of essential medical consumables is necessary. Eom Joongsik, Professor of Infectious Diseases at Gachon University Gil Medical Center, said, "Korea imports a significant portion of its medical supplies, but there is a lack of comprehensive data on the actual distribution and production of essential consumables. In addition to vaccines, there needs to be systematic management of consumables such as syringes," he emphasized.

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