Treasury releases Rs. 1 billion to buy essential drugs
The Treasury has released Rs 1 billion to buy urgently needed medicines, including cancer treatment drugs.
Accordingly, Rs 500 million has been released to the State Phar maceuticals Corporation (SPC) while Rs 500 million has also been given to the Health Ministry’s Medical Supplies Division (MSD).
The move came after the Sunday Times last week exposed how the shortage of medicines had affected cancer patients with hospitals being forced to turn away some of them. Health Minister Raj it ha Senaratne told this week' s Cabinet meeting that the report was not correct, but officials concerned have reconfirmed that the medical supply shortage continued and that it would take a few weeks to normalise the situation.
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MSD Director General Lal Panapitiya told the Sunday Times the funds were released after Minister Senaratne met Treasury officials following his return to the country from an official visit overseas. Due to the release of these funds, Dr Panapitiya said the authorities would be able to buy drugs sufficient for one month.
Nevertheless, he revealed that the Treasury owed a further Rs 4 billion to the SPC for earlier purchases. In addition, the Treasury also owes Rs 1 billion to the State Pharmaceuticals Manufacturing Corporation (SPMC) and another Rs 1 billion to the MSD.
The DG said delays on the part of the Treasury in releasing funds it owed to these institutions contributed to the delay in buying the essential drugs.
Dr. Panapitiya said the drug purchases and supplies were mainly affected by the 52-day political crisis, during which tenders could not be called for more than a month due to the failure to appoint members to the tender boards.
A senior Treasury official acknowledged there had been delays on the part of the Treasury in releasing the funds, but added the Treasury having to repay USD 1 billion as part of a loan payment, coupled with the 52-day political crisis had contributed to the crisis.
SPC Chairman Mohamed Rumy said he expected the Treasury to release the Rs 1 billion promised to the corporation and the MSD by Tuesday. He also said the Health Minister had instructed officials to ensure that there were no further shortages of essential drugs.
Meanwhile, the Health Ministry responded to last week's Sunday Times story headlined ‘Cancer patients hit by delays in appointments.’
Its statement conceded that there was at present a shortage of 17 of 75 widely used cancer drugs. Fresh stocks for six of these drugs were due to arrive this week and the SPC had made arrangements to immediately dispatch the drugs to the ‘Apeksha’ Hospital in Maharagama and other cancer treatment centres, the Ministry said.
It said action would also be taken to airlift stocks of the other cancer treatment drugs that are now in short supply.