By Sujeewa Thathsara, Pradeep Prasanna Samarakoon and Chaminda Silva

Patients’ lives are in danger due to shortages of drugs, Secretary of the All Ceylon Medical Officers’ Association (ACMOA), Dr. Jayantha Bandara says. Dr. Bandara said that even leading hospitals in the country including the National Hospital, Colombo, faced shortages.

“There are crippling shortages of surgical equipment, pain killers, cancer drugs, medicines used for common non-communicable diseases and widely used medicines for children. Some of these drugs are over,” he said.

Dr. Bandara warned that the health sector will collapse in a few months unless remedial action was taken urgently.

“A lot of government hospitals ask patients to buy medicine from private pharmacies. However, the prices of medicines have increased by 400 percent in the past few months. People just can’t afford to buy medicines from the private sector,” he said.

ACMOA Secretary said that the State Pharmaceutical Corporation (SPC) could import drugs at reasonable prices and release them to the market. However, the SPC had done precious little to import and sell drugs or make the best use of the Indian credit lines, he said.

“This is the responsibility of the SPC. Even top-tier Colombo hospitals like the National Hospital and the Eye Hospital are facing severe shortages. Do we even need to talk about rural hospitals? The lives of people are at risk,” Dr. Bandara said, adding that doctors had been compelled to postpone surgeries because of drug and equipment shortages. “This has made thousands of patients vulnerable.

“The government needs to address this situation immediately, he said. Moreover, resident patients do not receive nutritious meals at hospitals, he said.

“The Health Ministry is not managing the crisis at all. For example, doctors at the Eye Hospital are compelled to ask patients to buy all kinds of medicine and equipment from the private sector. Most people can’t afford them. What can the doctors do? A lot of doctors are now involved in fundraising. However, that becomes a problem when government ministers say there are no medical shortages,” he said.

These contradictory statements are confusing potential donors, Dr. Bandara added. A lot of philanthropists have contacted doctors’ unions and health ministry and have sought clarifications, he said.

“We try to tell them what the situation here is. But some of the health ministry officials say that there are no shortages. A number of doctors have told me that there is a drop in donations as well. Also, we have no idea about what had happened to the Indian credit line. It was revealed in Parliament that India had allocated a few hundred million dollars for medical supplies, but what has happened to that? No one seems to know,” he said.