Shortage of vital drugs in Govt. hospitals

Many Government hospitals are facing a shortage of essential drugs and costly surgical material for heart operations causing thousands of outpatients as well as in-ward patients to buy them from outside. Hospital sources said that many heart patients have to suffer as surgical materials used for by-pass operations and other heart operations are not available. Arterial line, commonly used to monitor the blood pressure, surgical threads (sutures) used for heart operations, plasters and many surgical materials are not available and patients are requested to purchase them from outside.

Insulin (to control their blood sugar (glucose), aspirin (to prevent heart attacks and strokes), atorvastatin, simvastatin, lovastatin (lipid lowering drugs), iso-sorbite mononitrate (ISMN) (symptomatic relief of ischaemic heart disease), beclamethasone inhaler capsules (for preventive therapy of asthma), salbutamol inhaler capsules (for symptomatic relief of sthma), ciprofloxacin (a widely used antibiotic), 1-alpha calcidiol (essential to prevent calcium deficiency and bone demineralization in chronic kidney disease and also used to treat osteoporosis) and calcium lactate (to treat osteoporosis) are some of the essential drugs which are unavailable in hospitals.

The Sunday Times learns that the National Hospital in Colombo needs around 1500-2000 aspirins for outpatients per day, while Government hospitals need 35,000 vials of insulin monthly.

Health Ministry Medical Supplies Division (MSD) Director Dr. Hemantha Beneragama admitted that some essential drugs were not available in hospitals due to the State Pharmaceutical Corporation (SPC) being unable to deliver supplies, which were supposed to have been delivered by January.

“MSD supplies more than 1000 drugs and our procurement agent is the SPC. We give the national requirement at least one year in advance. If we are not supplied our stock position would go down. The SPC goes for worldwide tenders and if there is a breakdown at any point there may be instances where the hospitals face a dearth of drugs,” he said.

Dr. Beneragama said that local market products are not sufficient for the huge demand as local manufacturers produce only one percent of the country’s total requirement of medical supplies.

“The quantity of drugs in the local market is very low. Government hospitals need 35,000 insulin vials per month but the local market can give us only 8000. We were able to manage for three weeks with it. Until the SPC supplies us the shortage would remain,” he said.