Govt. hopes to import most essential drugs soon

Health situation in grave crisis, GMOA warns

The prevailing medicine shortage should ease shortly, with more supplies coming in from funds and orders placed, a health official said.

Sri Lanka’s medical supplies were badly hit by the country's inability to pay regular suppliers, and private importers too were unable to open letters of credit or pay for earlier imports.

Many hospitals had run out of most of the essential drugs and the latest problem arose when the Health Ministry failed to buy anesthetic drugs on time due to a lack of foreign currency and the inability to open letters of credit after the country declared bankruptcy.

Sri Lanka’s health sector is funded by taxpayers’ money, but due to a revenue shortfall, the Government failed to import essential drugs. Therefore, the unprecedented economic crisis had hit the health sector hard and many patients had complained they were told to buy medicines on their own instead of State-run hospitals supplying them free-of-charge.

The Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) called the Government’s poor financial and economic management to account, and called upon people from overseas to donate supplies. Similarly, the Sri Lanka Medical Association (SLMA) had expressed concern about the shortages and warned of a likely increase in death rates.

Even though the Health Minister Keheliya Rambukwella said the Ministry had bought 83 out of the 151 drugs that were in short supplu, the problem of Sri Lanka’s drug insufficiency remains. GMOA Media Secretary Dr. Chamil Wijesinghe, said mere statements would not address the grave issues in the healthcare sector.

A more vigorous system was needed to avoid and mitigate shortages, include advance notice systems to national medicines regulatory authorities (NMRAs), and special initiatives that monitor stock levels of specific medicines.

“While we are enthusiastic about the Government’s commitment to addressing the issues, we fear the proposed solutions or statements will not solve the problem. Sri Lanka needs an effective plan that could jump-start the drug shortage,” Dr. Wijesinghe said.

Mitigation includes a workaround to address the current shortage, operational improvements to reduce the shortage risk and achieve early warning, changes in governmental policies, and education and training for all health professionals about managing shortages, he said.

Drugs used for cancer treatment were in short supply, doctors said, while also pointing to a shortage of medical devices and reagents used for laboratory tests and investigations. Surgical supplies were inadequate and servicing medical equipment had become more difficult, they said.

“It is hard to appraise the impact of these shortages, but we can certainly say it impacts the standard of medical care. We are holding it together to the best of our abilities with restrictions to little or no resources,” GMAO member Dr. Hansamal Weerasuriya said.

“It is hard to appraise the impact of these shortages, but we can certainly say it impacts the standard of medical care. We are holding it together to the best of our abilities with restrictions to little or no resources