Health Ministry team India bound to purchase drugs

Nadira GUNATILLEKE

A special team from the Healthcare and Nutrition Ministry left for India yesterday to purchase 98 essential life saving drugs for Sri Lanka.

These drugs are freely available in the country at the moment but it is estimated that the existing stocks will end in another three months.

Some will and even earlier, a Healthcare and Nutrition Ministry spokesman said.

According to the spokesman the Ministry has already obtained Cabinet approval for 'Emergency Pharmaceutical Purchasing' to purchase all 98 essential life saving drugs.

This will be the last batch of drugs that will be purchased by the Ministry following this procedure.

The Ministry practised this method on few occasions during the recent past. A representative from the treasury will also be included in this special team to ensure transparency.

The drugs will be delivered to Sri Lanka and will be distributed among state hospitals within a period of ten days.

Apart from this step, the Ministry has also made arrangements to purchase drugs locally in small quantities, he said. Recently the Ministry discovered that some dispensers in state hospitals inform patients that the drugs are not available to avoid a part of their duty which is getting drugs from the hospital store.

When the drug is over at the counter, the dispenser does not obtain the drug from the hospital store and inform the patients that the drug is not available, he added.