• Nearly 62% drop in deliveries

Sri Lanka has experienced a severe reduction in the supply of medicines, with shipments falling from 2,000 consignments last year to just 750 this year, as reliably learnt by The Sunday Morning. 

This represents a sharp 62.5% reduction in the receipt of medicines.

The delay in receiving consignments is mainly attributed to the slow procurement process, as the officials follow the established procurement guidelines. 

It is also reliably learnt that the new officials who have been appointed to the procurement committees are reluctant to take practical decisions and instead heavily rely on processes that take months to complete.

Nevertheless, as confirmed by medical officers, as of now, the situation in hospitals around the country is manageable. However, the shortages have worsened over the past several years. 

Even though the shortages are yet to reach the dire levels they did during the severe economic crisis, The Sunday Morning learns that unless immediate action is taken by the relevant authorities, the shortages are expected to increase further.

For the past several months, medicine stocks have remained at an average of nearly 70-80% in hospitals and there have been no major shortages reported except for a few local incidents, which have also been managed without any pressing issues. 

However, as learnt by The Sunday Morning, the shortages are growing and currently there is a risk of the number of total medicines that are out of stock increasing to above 100.

Speaking to The Sunday Morning, Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) Spokesman Dr. Chamil Wijesinghe said that although there were shortages at present, they could be managed at this level.

“Shortages have not yet reached their climax, which we saw several years ago during the severe economic crisis,” he stressed, adding that the current shortages had no impact on patients.

“There are local issues that have existed for a long time. Some medicines periodically go out of stock. As we observed, this is due to a lack of coordination between the key institutions and delays in procurement. 

“If we can improve the system, the efficiency of the procurement system would also increase,” he said, adding that during a recent meeting held with Health Minister Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa, the doctors had requested the Minister to expedite the digitalisation of the medicine distribution network.

“Currently, we have the Swastha system. We have experts and the system; it’s just that we will have to enhance the system,” he added. 

Commenting on the allegations levelled against the National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA), Dr. Wijesinghe stressed that the issue with the NMRA was a capacity problem.

Meanwhile, when contacted, State Pharmaceuticals Corporation (SPC) General Manager Dinusha Dasanayake said the SPC had already floated an interim tender to import the required insulin stocks to Sri Lanka.

He acknowledged that there were some shortages in insulin due to the delay in supplying medicines on time. “We initially ordered 500,000 vials of consignments, but the supplier sent us 5,000 vials by splitting the deliveries into small quantities,” he said.

Dasanayake added that there were supply shortages that affected only a few medicines due to shortages of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) in the world market. “We are unloading 15-30 consignments every day,” he added.

However, when contacted, Ministry of Health Secretary Dr. Anil Jasinghe said there were five key institutions – namely the Medical Supplies Division (MSD), NMRA, SPC, and State Pharmaceuticals Manufacturing Corporation (SPMC) – that were working on the medicine procurement process.

“There should be proper coordination between these institutions. We are planning to do a thorough study this week and we will make the procurement process efficient within the next two to three weeks.”