The scramble to secure more ventilators to be ready for a rush of severe COVID-19 cases in Australia may have been in vain, as there are not enough medications to run them all, a new survey suggests.

A snapshot of the availability of key ICU medications in 66 of 272 hospitals invited to take part in the survey on 17 April revealed there was only enough propofol to run 774 of the increased ventilator capacity of 1639 beds.

But this capacity could reduce even further, if the drug were used for other cases, including elective surgeries, according to the Society of Hospital of Pharmacists of Australia (SHPA), who conducted the survey, the first of its new weekly snapshot of medicine supplies.

Worryingly, 18 hospitals — most in metro areas — didn’t have enough propofol to manage even one single day of ventilated patients when operating at their maximum planned capacity, and most of them (16) did not have sufficient to run for a day at half their planned maximum capacity.