Steps taken to import 130 drugs currently in short supply

By Chaturanga Pradeep Samarawickrama 

Health Minister Keheliya Rambukwella said steps will be taken to import around 130 types of medicines that are currently in short supply.  

He also said the consignment of medications would be sufficient for three months.  

“There is a shortage of 14 essential life saving drugs that have been identified. If those drugs are in short supply, people would lose their lives. “We have discussed the matter with medical experts and decided to import them,” he said.   There is an existing stock of the said life saving drugs, which is sufficient for two or three months, but not for a year. That is the truth. he said.  

Some 384 types of drugs have been classified as essential. However, 130 essential drugs are in short supply. The shortage is in the stores, but you can find those medicines in hospitals.   However, the health ministry is in the process of importing stocks of essential medicines which are in short supply within the next two or three weeks, which will be sufficient for another maximum of four months, he said.   The minister added that if the necessary steps had been taken two years ago, there wouldn’t have been shortage of medicines in the country.