Current efforts include planning to make emergency medical supplies available on short notice… tight budgets mean that no one, including local hospitals, has inventories sitting around.

As a result we need to re-think concepts of mutual aid… and have local stockpiles readily accessible during the first 12-24 hours of an incident.

We are now completing negotiations to have such a cache available in this Region to be able treat first responders, their families, and the first 5000 victims until federal resources arrive.

Stockpiling must recognize that pharmaceuticals have a limited shelf life…. that drug manufacturers only make what normal daily demands dictate…. and that storage, maintenance, stock rotation, and delivery all takes time and costs money.