IV Fluid Shortage: What’s Happening and How to Stay Prepared

When hospitals run low on IV fluids, sterile liquids given through veins to hydrate patients, deliver meds, or maintain blood pressure. Also known as intravenous solutions, these are basic, life-sustaining tools in emergency rooms, ICUs, and even at-home care. It’s not a rare glitch—it’s a growing pattern. In 2023 and 2024, major shortages hit saline, dextrose, and lactated Ringer’s solutions across North America and Europe. This isn’t about one pharmacy running out—it’s about the entire system struggling to keep up.

Why does this keep happening? The IV fluid supply chain, a tightly linked network of raw material suppliers, manufacturing plants, and distribution hubs. Also known as IV solution manufacturing network, it’s built on just a handful of factories, mostly overseas. One plant shutdown from a natural disaster, power outage, or quality control failure can ripple across continents. Add to that rising demand from aging populations, more surgeries, and chronic disease management, and you’ve got a perfect storm. Meanwhile, drug shortages, the broader problem of essential medicines becoming hard to find. Also known as pharmaceutical scarcity, it’s not limited to IV fluids—it includes antibiotics, anesthetics, and even insulin. But IV fluids are different. You can’t substitute them easily. You can’t take a pill instead of an IV drip when you’re dehydrated from surgery or vomiting. Patients with kidney disease, cancer, or severe infections are hit hardest. Even routine procedures like colonoscopies or childbirth are being delayed because there’s not enough saline to flush lines or maintain hydration.

What can you do? If you’re on long-term IV therapy, talk to your doctor now about backup plans. Ask if there are alternative fluids or delivery methods that might work. Keep track of your local hospital’s alerts—some post updates on their websites. Don’t hoard IV supplies; that just makes things worse. Instead, stay informed. The posts below cover real stories from patients, clinicians, and researchers who’ve dealt with these shortages firsthand. You’ll find guides on how to recognize early signs of dehydration when fluids are limited, what alternatives doctors are using, and how policy changes might help prevent this from getting worse. This isn’t just about medicine—it’s about keeping people safe when the system is under strain.