(LANKAPUVATH | COLOMBO) – Minister of Health Dr. Keheliya Rambukwella told UNICEF that the procurement process which used to take 9-11 months to import medicines has now been reduced to 3-4 months.
The Minister pointed out that the main objective of this is to provide medicines to the patients continuously without any shortage while ensuring more transparency.
Minister Rambukwella made this disclosure when he met with a group of UNICEF officials including its regional director George Laryea Adjei Christian Skoog, the organization’s country representative recently at the Ministry of Health.
The UNICEF officials donated a stock of vitamins and medicines containing essential micronutrients for the growth of babies from 6 months to 5 years to Sri Lanka. Among the donations valued at US$ 813,200 were over 400,000 infant nutrition packs.
The minister also pointed out that the shortage of medicines in the country is gradually decreasing and that there will be more success in the next few weeks.
The Minister of Health said that all 14 life-saving medicines are currently available in the country and steps have been taken to obtain 100 of the 384 essential medicines that are in shortage very quickly.
He said that international organizations such as the World Bank and the World Health Organization are providing the necessary support for this.
He said that a more systematic program regarding essential medicines for patients is currently being implemented and for this, opinions of health expert associations are being obtained weekly.
Mr. Rambukwella also said that it is planned to continue this program as a national program so that there will be no shortage of drugs in the country even if the drug crisis is alleviated.
Mr. George Laryea Adjei, Regional Director of UNICEF, who spoke at the event, said that he appreciates the efforts being made to recover from the current crisis in Sri Lanka and especially the program taken by the Minister of Health and the officials in the face of the Covid epidemic and drug crisis.
Director General of Health Services Dr. Asela Gunawardena, Chief Coordinator of the Ministry of Health (Covid and Drug Grant Affairs and Director of Medical Technical Services) Dr. Anwar Hamdani and a group of UNICEF officials participated in this event.
