The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 273 No 7315 p319
4 September 2004

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Pharmacy at the 2004 Olympic Games

In this article, Mark Stuart and Maria Skouroliakou describe pharmacy arrangements at the Olympic Games in Athens last month

New drug technologies series

The Polyclinic pharmacy in the Athens Olympic village opened on 30 July to provide for the pharmaceutical requirements of over 17,000 athletes, team officials and technical officials from 202 countries. The pharmacy provided medicines to residents of the Olympic village and acted as a central point of organisation, co-ordination and distribution of drugs to the satellite pharmacies at each of the Olympic sporting venues. Pharmacists worked alongside other medical experts in a closely knit environment to provide a world class level of medical care to the “Olympic family”.

In addition to the pharmacy, the Polyclinic also contained a comprehensive range of medical services and specialties, which included sports medicine, medical imaging, podiatry, dentistry, physiotherapy, pathology, eye services (including opticians and ophthalmologists), orthopaedics and gynaecology. With its contemporary design, brand new high-tech medical equipment and marble floors throughout, the Polyclinic functioned as a complete luxury hospital and state-of-the-art sports medicine clinic.

A total of 3,000 medical staff were required to run the medical programme for the games. This included 400 specialist doctors, 400 nurses, 400 physical therapists, 200 masseurs, 40 dentists, 30 opticians and 20 podiatrists. In addition, 170 ambulances and three helicopters were at the ready to cope with any medical emergencies that arose. The medical services within the village worked closely with the Greek Ministry of Health and Welfare to ensure that patients requiring additional medical treatment other than that provided in the Polyclinic could be transferred to a network of dedicated hospitals. The Polyclinic pharmacy was staffed by 12 Greek pharmacists and 10 pharmacy students from Athens University. There were two shifts during the day, from 8am to 3pm and 3pm to 10pm; an on-call pharmacy service was provided overnight.

A pharmacy guide outlining the games formulary and prescribing procedures was supplied to each participating nation. The formulary included information about the status of each drug in sport and information about notification procedures for restricted drugs requiring a therapeutic use exemption, such as beta2-agonists and corticosteroids. Since many of the large teams brought their own supply of medicines, the formulary also contained information about the importation of drugs into Greece. Eight months before the games, each national Olympic committee was requested to declare all medicines it planned to bring into the country to ensure that there could be no inadvertent breach of customs and importation laws. Special allowances were made for visiting team doctors to prescribe only for members of their own country’s team for the duration of the games.

All medicines and medical services were provided free of charge to the athletes and officials. There were 270 different medicines listed on the formulary and available for prescribing. Although a considerable amount of drug stock was donated by pharmaceutical companies, the total cost of drugs for the pharmacy came to e240,000.

Pharmacy computer system
The computer dispensing system was custom designed for the Athens games and seemed to combine the most successful elements of the dispensing programmes from the Sydney Olympics and the Manchester Commonwealth Games. The system was linked to the athlete accreditation system and the details of each athlete were displayed by simply entering his or her identification number. The system was also linked to the other medical systems within the Polyclinic to provide the pharmacist with information about the prescribing doctor and the Polyclinic admission details. The system would alert the dispensing pharmacist if any prohibited or restricted drug was dispensed and would print a duplicate prescription for the athlete to keep.

Around 100 to 150 prescriptions were dispensed daily. Similar to previous games, anti-inflammatory drugs, including diclofenac, were most frequently prescribed for soft-tissue injury. Antibiotics and loratadine were also in high demand, as was simple eye drops for dry, irritated eyes; the consequence of 36C temperatures on some days and a dry and dusty atmosphere. Simple analgesics were dispensed by prescription only and fast-movers included paracetamol and orphenadrine. The Polyclinic pharmacy was also responsible for distributing 130,000 free condoms and 30,000 sachets of personal lubricant; pharmacy involvement in safer sex campaigns is becoming a tradition at international games.

The pharmacy was given access to the recently launched MedicinesComplete by the Pharmaceutical Press for the period of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. This comprehensive electronic information package could be used for the identification of drugs and product names from foreign countries and allowed pharmacy staff access to information on a range of nutritional supplements frequently used by athletes.

To cope with the increased pharmacy demands of millions of visitors to Athens, the Olympic organising committee and pharmacists representing the pharmaceutical industry and local businesses came to an agreement for the operation and restocking of essential medicines around Athens during the games. The number of pharmacies open at the weekends and overnight was increased, especially around Olympic venues, downtown Athens and the port of Piraeus. Provisions for the restocking of pharmacies during evening hours were implemented.

The Polyclinic pharmacy will remain open until 1 October to serve the athletes and officials of the Paralympic Games.

Further information about pharmacy at previous Olympic and Commonwealth Games and drugs in sport can be found at www.sportspharmacy.com.