Innsbruck hospital pharmacy supplies healthcare facilities across Tyrol

The hospital pharmacy at Innsbruck State Hospital supplies 16 hospitals in Tyrol and Vorarlberg, as well as other medical facilities, with medicines, ORF reported. It keeps around 4,000 medicines in stock and is facing ongoing supply shortages and increasingly demanding therapies.

The pharmacy is one of 43 hospital pharmacies in Austria and has supplied medical facilities in Tyrol for around 40 years. These include all other hospitals in Tyrol except Schwaz, for historical reasons, as well as the Kettenbrücke and Hochrum sanatoriums, rehabilitation centres in Münster and Kitzbühel, and the hospice in Hall.

In Vorarlberg, it also supplies Dornbirn Hospital and Dornbirn’s nursing and social services. Pharmacy director Martina Jeske said historical reasons were mainly responsible for this arrangement.

The pharmacy’s main focus is maintaining reliable supplies. Its stock of around 4,000 different medicines corresponds to roughly one month’s demand. It also stores medicines for disasters and major emergencies, and keeps antidotes available for poisoning cases.

The pharmacy also keeps medical leeches, which are used mainly in plastic and reconstructive surgery to relieve venous congestion. “They help save endangered tissue,” Jeske said. The leeches must be stored in cool, dark conditions.

Supply shortages have been part of the pharmacy’s daily work for more than a decade. The situation was particularly challenging during the Covid pandemic, Jeske said. There were 1,148 supply shortages in 2023. The situation eased somewhat in 2025, with around 660 reports of medicines being unavailable, but nearly 400 reports had already been processed in the first half of 2026.

In around 30 percent of those cases, the pharmacy had to obtain a replacement medicine. Many medicines are also discontinued for economic reasons, requiring staff to search continuously for alternatives.

The pharmacy buys all medicines directly from manufacturers. Austrian law requires it to use medicines authorised in Austria. Imports from abroad are permitted only when a medicine is unavailable in Austria, which happens repeatedly because of supply shortages.

The pharmacy also produces medicines that are not available on the market, including treatments for premature babies, chemotherapy and immunotherapy medicines for oncology, and preparations for the eye and dermatology clinics.

In 2025, it prepared 60,000 individual cytostatic treatments for cancer patients. The number is expected to rise to 65,000 in 2026. Once a doctor approves the treatment, each preparation is produced to the exact milligram and is ready around 90 minutes later.

The pharmacy generates more than 150 million euros in annual medicine sales. Jeske attributed the increase to more expensive therapies and a growing number of patients. She leads the pharmacy’s 84 employees.