Pieces of glass, a dead cockroach in substandard drug imports
In a shocking exposure, the Auditor General’s Department has revealed that the Health Ministry and its related departments have imported substandard drugs in 2020 some of which contained pieces of glass and also had a dead cockroach.
Many of the quality-failed drugs had been withdrawn from being used or the use had been suspended due to reasons such as existence of pieces of glass, existence of visible particles, a dead cockroach, tablets getting broken, changes in color, and non-conformity to the specification, its audit report revealed.
The Auditor General said
Sri Lanka has been importing substandard or fake medicinal drugs by the Health Ministry which result in life threatening issues, financial loss and loss in trust on the health system.
This government audit inspection has exposed the weaknesses of the Health Ministry, Medical Supplies Division and the National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA) in their failure to take preventive measures.
Large stocks of substandard drugs had been imported to the country by the health authorities spending Rs. 1.13 billion in 2020, the report disclosed.
The total amount of drugs imported in 2020 was Rs. 2 billion with a quantity of 25 percent more than the estimated requirement.
The Medical Supplies Division has distributed stocks of substandard drugs among state hospitals last year but hospital authorities had taken measures to remove it without using as almost all items were expired or with change in colour, damaged and packed with small pieces of glass or other substances.
According to the report, these medical supplies had failed quality assurance tests.
Out of the 20,850 items of medical supplies being in use in hospitals in 2020, 35 percent equivalent to 7,394 items had not been recommended by the Formulary Revision Committee appointed by the government.
Certain drugs removed by the Committee had still been in use. Orders had been placed by the Medical Supplies Division on June 29, 2020 to purchase 258 items of drugs worth Rs. 3.51 billion that had not been approved by the Committee for the same year, the audit report observed.
In order to prevent shortages in medical supplies that occurred due to reasons such as delays in the procurement process and medical supplies getting delayed etc, the Supplies Division had to spend an additional sum of millions of rupees, Health Ministry sources said.