Health Ministry to allot few experienced F&D Inspectors: Dr. Ananda Wijewickrama

To revive operations of defunct NMRA Law Enforcement Division

4 November 2024 09:54 pm Views - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}} 5 Bookmark

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Colombo, November 4 (Daily Mirror) - The Ministry of Health has agreed to assign a few experienced Food and Drug Inspectors to revive the operations of the now-defunct law enforcement division of the National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA), which is responsible for all the drug raids in the country, the Daily Mirror learns.

The NMRA Law Enforcement Division, which was behind the exposure of the infamous human immunoglobulin scam and numerous medicinal drug inspections and raids is almost dysfunctional at present as the last two experienced Food and Drug Inspectors including the Chief Food and Drug Inspector went on retirement respectively last April and June.

Hence, the division has appointed two pharmacists to manage day-to-day paperwork as these employees were not experienced Food and Drug Inspectors to carry out inspection tasks and seize substandard or counterfeit medicinal drugs sold in the market.

When contacted, Chairman NMRA Dr. Ananda Wijewickrama told the Daily Mirror the Ministry of Health has agreed to assign a few of its experienced Food and Drug Inspectors to the NMRA to revive its operations in the law enforcement division.

He said more new qualified pharmacists would be absorbed into the division in the near future to train them with the laws pertaining to the NMRA Act to revive its enforcement duties soon.

The NMRA, empowered by the National Medicines Regulatory Authority Act No.5 of 2015, is responsible for protecting and improving public health by ensuring medicinal products available in the country meet applicable standards of safety, quality and efficacy. The authority regulates medicines, medical devices, borderline products, clinical trials and cosmetics.

The role of NMRA as described under its Act is monitored by the authority’s Law Enforcement Division, manned by its staff Food and Drug Inspectors.

Comments - 5

Rakitha W Tuesday, 05 November 2024 12:39 AM

Plans are said to be in place to provide the police with body cams to increase transparency when interacting with the public. Similarly, these officials too should be given the new technology so that corruption can be kept at minimal levels. It should also be obligatory for the wearers to ensure, with the help of experts of course, the smooth functioning of body worn cameras.

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Dr Mano, Consultant Tuesday, 05 November 2024 01:03 AM

My request to the new government of Sri Lanka is to permanently ban ALL MEDICINES made in India. Over 80% of the fatalities in Sri Lanka related to medicines can be connected to Indian imported medicines. Without taking this action to prevent Indian medical products ever reaching Sri Lanka no amount of other well intentioned initiatives are going to produce the intended results. The CID or the Army Intelligence should be brought in to counter the Indians who are using aggressive tactics and bribes to sell their medical drugs to Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka should be bold like Canada and America in dealing with India.

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Upgrade Work Flows With AI Automation Tuesday, 05 November 2024 05:59 AM

Every sector’s senior officials should do a proper audit of their work flow process. Get feedback from all staff (both seniors and juniors) discreetly so that issues and concerns can be addressed quickly and accordingly. With a mentality of the past to remain stagnant and unproductive, new work flows needs to be implemented with AI technologies. Those who are resistant should be transferred out or made to “retire”. It may be cruel but need to look at the bigger picture as other countries are moving rapidly, implementing AI as a new form of automation.

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K.M.D. Samarasekera - [Attorney-at-Law] Tuesday, 05 November 2024 07:35 AM

We will welcome that great idea as it will be a green light for us in the future, very sad still the drugs purchased by Kehiliya is rotating in many hospitals, but the main culprit is released on bail and enjoying a gala time with his family in five-star hotels.

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Why no new recruits at all in the past five years Tuesday, 05 November 2024 09:18 AM

Failure of Ranil and Mahinda led governments have led to this. The problem didn't suddenly emerge, surely they would have known for years in advance that senior staff would one day leave. Were there expectations the senior staff would work feebly into their seventies like the many useless former MPs in the pervious Parliament. There should be inquiry as to why the problem wasn't foreseen for the last 5 years, to avoid the current predicament.

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