Mark Stuart
Published in the Pharmaceutical Journal UK, 2006
Given the spread of Olympic venues across the mountains surrounding Turin, three separate Olympic Athlete Villages were purpose built. One Village was in central Turin and two near the mountain venues: Sestriere and Bardoneccia. Each Village had a separate Polyclinic which provided athletes with the full range of medical services including a new purpose built pharmacy on each site.
Each of the three pharmacies was open from 8am until 10pm daily with emergency overnight services. The facilities were staffed by two pharmacists at any one time, who were assigned one week periods to manage the operation of each pharmacy. Pharmacies were restocked on a daily basis, with the distribution point of all drugs being the regional Italian government pharmaceutical authority that serves the Turin region.
A specialised drug formulary was developed by the Turin Organising Committee (TOROC) Healthcare Program and included the list of drugs available free of charge to athletes and Olympic and Paralympic Family members. A copy of this formulary was distributed to each team prior to the start of the Games.
The formulary contained a selection of drugs from the most common therapeutic categories. For example, antibiotics available for prescribing were: amoxycillin, Augmentin, cefaclor, ceftazidime, ceftriaxone, ciprofloxacin, doxycycline, erythromycin, imipenem, levofloxacin, metronidazole, and Bactrim. NSAIDs, which are the most commonly prescribed drug in sports medicine, included: celecoxib, diclofenac, ibuprofen, ketoprofen, and aspirin. The relatively moderate altitude of the mountain venues meant that drugs to specifically treat altitude related conditions were not specifically considered as a therapeutic group in the Olympic formulary. Interestingly, the Winter Olympic Drug Formulary reflects similar doses and indications that are in the official national Italian formulary, which is based directly on a translation of the British National Formulary.
The dispensing program had a built-in function to alert the dispensing pharmacist when a prohibited or restricted substance was being dispensed. If a prohibited substance had to be dispensed, the doctor was required to explain the consequences to the athlete, and both the athlete and doctor would sign the prescription. The pharmacist would then confirm with the prescriber that a prohibited substance was dispensed and the prescribing doctor or the Polyclinic Director would notify the IOC that a prohibited substance had been issued.
For the duration of the Olympics and Paralympics, the Italian Ministry of Health allowed visiting medical doctors to provide their usual range of services to members of their own team. This enabled them to use pharmaceuticals from the team supply and prescribe formulary medicines on official Olympic prescriptions to be dispensed from the Polyclinic Pharmacy. They were also given the right to order diagnostic examinations, medical imaging and laboratory tests from the Polyclinic for their own team.
The shipment of medicines into Italy by individual teams for their own use was coordinated by the Ministry of Health, Customs Authorities and TOROC. A full inventory of medications that wished to be imported had to be submitted by each team to these organisations prior to the Games.
The pharmacy services covered the period of the Olympic Games and will stay open until the close of the Villages after the Paralympic Games in late March.