- Alleges that the MOH is spreading false news about shortage
- Claims that Govt is overspending on medicines
Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) MP and Former Health Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne yesterday (30) charged that the data and information provided by the Health Minister Keheliya Rambukwella regarding the current shortage of medicines are false and it could mislead the public.
Speaking at a press conference held yesterday, MP Senarathne claimed that the Ministry of Health (MOH) is unnecessarily spending a lot of money to buy medicines, while spreading falsehoods about the shortage of medicines.
“The Health Minister and an Additional Secretary to the MOH had said that out of the 170 essential medicines that were in short supply, 100 medicines are currently missing. This is a lie. I explained this in detail in the Advisory Committee of the MOH held last week. There are 850 essential health substances. Among them, there are 643 essential medicines. In Sri Lanka we use The British National Formulary (BNF) according to which it is mentioned that there are 643 essential medicines. According to it, there is a shortage of 300 different medicines in the Medical Supplying Division. So how can we say that the shortage of medicines has been solved,” Senaratne said.
The former Minister of Health also charged that due to malpractices in the procedure of procurement of medicines, the Government had to suffer heavy financial loss.
“Recently, some of the drugs purchased from the Indian credit line were purchased from unregistered companies. It is not possible to do that. It can only be done in a very special circumstance. Even in such a condition, a No Objection Letter is required. The same thing happened when purchasing drugs from ADB donations. The Government has unnecessarily spent 680 lakhs to buy drugs. They have spent more money to buy drugs at a high price when they can buy the same at a relatively lower price. For example Ganciclovir, which can be bought for 7000 rupees, has been bought for 70000 rupees. Linezolid is worth 200 rupees. Done,” he said.
He also said that the Government should stop wasting money in this manner by saying that it has no money.
Attempts to contact the Minister of Health, Keheliya Rambukwella and the Secretary to the Ministry regarding the allegations made by Senarathne, failed.