Certain Govt. doctors collect huge commissions

Buying stents and contact lenses from pharmacies

Health Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne charged that certain government doctors put innocent eye and heart patients under heavy pressure saying that freely distributed contact lenses and stents were not available at their respective hospitals.

He added that these doctors advice patients to purchase stents and contact lenses from a pharmacy they name and by doing so collect a huge commission.

Addressing a ceremony held at Temple Trees to distribute appointment letters to 1,482 nurses who just passed out from Nurses Training Colleges that skeletons of mafia in the health sector was still active though he and President Maithripala Sirisena took much efforts to contain it.

“The ‘Yahapalana Government has brought down the prices of 73 essential medicinal drugs used daily by patients. Most of these drugs are used by heart, diabetic, kidney, arthritis and fever patients. With the introduction of this price formula for essential drugs, the monthly drug bill of these patients has been halved. In addition, I have also instructed to lift the ceiling of Rs.1.5 million worth of drugs given to cancer patients. Now any cancer patient is free to obtain drugs even up to Rs. 10 million per year. We have not only introduced laws requiring tobacco company to display pictures of smoking related cancers covering 80% of the surface of cigarettes packers to discourage smoking. Selling of cigarettes one by one and within 100 metres of a school periphery is prohibited. But we all did those things under the huge pressure, threats and intimidation of health sector mafia,” Minister Senaratne stressed. He noted that steps have also been taken to reduce the excessive use of sugar and salt which is the main contributor to increase Non Communicable Diseases (NCD) through various legislative measures.

Commenting on the nurses service in Sri Lanka, Minister Senaratne pointed out that there was a big demand in the global job market for Sri Lankan nurses with a nurses degree and added he would take steps to establish a post graduate programme for degree holding nurses at the Sri Jayewardene Teaching Hospital and added the Health Ministry spends Rs. 16.5m to train nurses and for their degree programmes.

Minister Senaratne pointed out that he would direct his attention to control the NCD as the Non Communicable Diseases had become the number one killer in Sri Lanka and in the world and eradicating of hydrophobia and filariasis.