Macquarie University makes own hand sanitiser ahead of pandemic demand
Pharmacists at Macquarie University Hospital are working tirelessly to create their own hand sanitiser ahead of anticipated demand during the coronavirus pandemic. It comes after the university hospital was down to about one week’s worth left of hand sanitiser.
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Pharmacists at Macquarie University Hospital are working tirelessly to create their own hand sanitiser ahead of anticipated demand during the coronavirus pandemic.
Last week, Macquarie University Hospital was down to about one week’s worth left of hand sanitiser which prompted the director of pharmacy Jane Stidworthy to get help from other faculties.
A university call out by the vice-chancellor for the key chemical ingredients required to make hand sanitiser was sent and within 24 hours, the faculty of engineering and faculty of medicine handed out hundreds of litres worth of chemicals.
“The engineering department of the university came back on the same day and had a lot of stock to give us and so did the research lab,” Ms Stidworthy said.
“Within a working day we went from nothing to bulk supply. It was more than we expected.”
This week, one of the pharmacists in her team diluted various chemicals to start making the hand sanitiser onsite.
“It’s fairly easy to compound because it’s just the dilution of a number of chemicals into a bulk container that we decant into smaller containers for the hospital,” she said.
With the current resources, she said they would be able to make about one month’s supply for Macquarie University Hospital and clinics.
“We’re going to produce enough to keep hospital and clinics going for the foreseeable future,” she said.
“At this stage that’s a month but potentially if the virus does not reduce in Australia, we will have to compound more.”
It comes after NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian called on businesses across the state to “re-tool” if they could to help ease shortages of essential health supplies including sanitisers and medical equipment.
“The supply of medical equipment isn’t what it used to be. NSW relied on many different sources of equipment including many sources overseas which no longer exist or have been massively disrupted,” she told reporters earlier this week.
“I’m calling on the great people of our state, those great business people, those manufacturers who are able to re-tool, to help supply the additional things we need in coming months.
“Whether it’s sanitisers, medical equipment or a whole host of other things which our hospitals will rely on in the coming months.”
Ms Stidworthy said her pharmacists did not have enough chemicals to go beyond supplying hand sanitiser to more hospitals outside the university for now.
“We can not source enough chemicals to go beyond this and our focus is keeping our front lines services operational,” she said.