Health Minister Dr.Ramesh Pathirana yesterday pledged to increase the local drug production within the next five to 10 years and to provide quality drugs at a low cost.
The Minister stated that more than US$ 600 million was spent annually on the import of drugs to Sri Lanka.
The Minister was joining the Parliament debate held on the financial heads of Health Ministry.
The Minister said the Health Ministry is working to continue the positive work done during the time of the former Health Ministers. In 1858, the health system of Sri Lanka was formally promoted as the Civil Medical Department as an institution that provided relief to the 2.4 million people who were the population of Sri Lanka at that time. Currently, the country’s health system has become a sector that provides countless health services to 21 million people.
With 23,000 doctors, 43,000 nurses, more than 10,000 people in the supplementary and interim medical service and nearly 100,000 other health staff, a total of 140,000 employees are making a great sacrifice for the country. Due to these interconnections for a long time, the health system of this country has reached the world level. Any health center or hospital can be found within five kilometers in every province of this country.
“Through this, a wonderful service is provided to the people. The service has been recognized by the World Health Organization as a center that provides quality health care at a low cost. According to the World Health Organization, it is far ahead among the countries in the region. Every Government and Minister in independent Sri Lanka has made great sacrifices for this. My thanks and respect for that.”
“Nowadays, with the great promotion of the health service, many issues have come before us, including maternal deaths, infant deaths, prevention of diseases transmitted by vaccines. The biggest sacrifice made in recent history is saving people’s lives in the face of the COVID crisis. The health staff of this country co-operated with the existing Governments to achieve positive results, surpassing the countries with advanced health systems in the world.”
“The drug crisis can be pointed out as the most important issue in noting the crises and challenges we are facing at present. Due to various problems and in the face of economic crisis, we had to deviate from the traditional suppliers and get help and grants from various institutions. Countries such as Japan, India and China helped us a lot under organizations and bilateral programs including World Health Organization, UNICEF, World Food Organization. Accordingly, the situation could be managed to some extent. We believe that the situation will be restored in the next few months.
“The emergency purchases used during the emergency have been stopped. We have clearly informed the Chairman and the staff of the Medicines Regulatory Authority to release the registration system for all unregistered medicines in accordance with the recommendations given by the World Health Organization and in accordance with the best methods we have identified, including grants for essential matters, even if it is not formally an emergency purchase. We will follow only that method hereafter. No other method is used to grant approval for any other drug.”
“With the current crisis in Sri Lanka, many problems have arisen in the Drug Regulatory Authority. A huge number of requests have been received for registration. We have informed the Drug Regulatory Authority that the matter of giving priority to re-registration is the first matter and the second matter is to give priority to local manufacturers. Thirdly, permission has been given for the registration of the third and fourth ingredients of the medicinal ingredients registered in this country. Only by prioritizing will attention be paid to other registrations.”
“It is everyone’s hope to strengthen registration, use specific methods and manufacture drugs in Sri Lanka as we see the final sustainable solution to the problem. In the past, that program has come forward strongly and today 210 out of 850 medicines in Sri Lanka are being produced in Sri Lanka. It’s a great job. During the difficult period of the last two years, many industries including the pharmaceutical industry in Sri Lanka have come forward. Currently, 20 percent of the medicines used in this country are produced in this country. More than 80 percent of Sri Lanka’s needs can be produced in the next 5-10 years by helping the right institutions with the right investments and through a transparent and very good industry.
For that, we are providing the maximum support that we can provide as a ministry. Through this, more than 600 million dollars are currently being spent on the import of medicine in Sri Lanka. We believe that in the next 5-10 years, by increasing the production of drugs in this country, we will produce the majority of drugs with high quality and low price. The prices of the drugs we import from abroad are low. Most of the medicines are of high quality. About 20 industries have made a big investment. To develop them and to promote the production of medicines in Sri Lanka through investments such as setting up new factories, and to export the products as well as to bring them to the country.We are working on it as a matter of priority.”
“Recently, a large number of professionals left the country due to the economic situation in the country. Doctors, nurses and other health staff have applied to leave the country. A group has left the country. We have discussed with various professions in the past to create a situation in this country where they can work in a positive professional environment.
There are many problems they face. The first point is the economic challenges, the second is the professional problems, after listening to all of them, the Ministry of Health is working with the support of the Ministry of Finance to provide relief to everyone. In the discussion about doctors leaving the country, because there was no advance awareness of this situation in Sri Lanka, especially specialist doctors have left the country. We have informed the Post Graduate Institute of Medicine that we are also making a request that it is very important to produce more specialists in the selected sectors for the country. The Ministry of Health is working to provide as many concessions as possible to accommodate them in the country.”
“There is a clear problem with the nutritional status of this country. As a result, the situation has been getting better for the past 3 months. The acute drought situation is decreasing exponentially compared to last year. The percentage of 1.4 percent has decreased to 1.2 percent. This year, the number of children suffering from severe drought has decreased from 18,670 to 15,763. Low weight does not indicate good condition. The government is implementing several programs for the selected families by providing special nutritional bags and food bags. Those programs are expected to be carried out more formally and strongly through family health officers and through a practical program through health medical officers to raise nutritional conditions. Officials of the Ministry of Health have arranged to do a big follow-up. Regarding the nutrition level, many large programs are being implemented under the leadership of the President and the leadership of the Presidential Bureau. Many people including polytechnic institutions and voluntary organizations have been involved in this. I believe that it will be possible to improve the nutritional status of the country’s children.”
“As well as working to strengthen the current school lunch program in the country, the Government has focused on launching a nutritional program for pre-school children in the near future to assess the nutritional status of children under the age of 05. If the financial situation is managed, we are clearly of the opinion that in the long run, it is appropriate to provide financial and food support to preschool children in addition to school children. Multilateral organizations are making great sacrifices for this.”
“Despite achieving great health achievements, Sri Lanka has faced a major crisis in the field of non-communicable diseases. Today, 15 percent of people over the age of 35 are suffering from diabetes. 10 percent of the child population is obese. There is a large prevalence of childhood diabetes and there is a trend of diabetes spreading among the population. 30 percent of the population over the age of 35 has high blood pressure. The dangerous situation is that most people do not know that they are diabetic. Many people do not receive treatment consistently. It’s a big problem. It is necessary to inform the people about this. It is necessary to prepare the necessary methods to reduce deaths.”
“Heart diseases, cancer, high blood pressure, and one of the main topics that we do not talk about is that there are 06 million hospitalizations and admissions in Sri Lanka every year. One million of them are hospitalized due to road accidents, home accidents, drowning etc. 12,000 lives are lost through these accidents every year. 1000 lives per month, 30 lives per day. It is an important issue that we need to focus on. Last year, 72 people lost their lives due to dengue. We request all parties and opposition parties as well as the media to inform the people about the dangers. In the matter of non-drinking diseases, we should talk about diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, cancer, and accidents. The health service has to bear a large specification for accident treatment services. A huge amount of money has to be spent on the health sector.”
“In the future, it is very important to strengthen and empower the implementation of the cluster system for one institution to successfully implement the primary health development programs in the country in future universal health care programs. It is essential to develop a system for the transfer of patients from a primary health institution to secondary and tertiary centers. A lot of work has already been done for that. We are working for it by providing the necessary strength.”
While these activities are being carried out, we will formally hold meetings to cover all matters related to universal health care programs and work with the central government and the provinces to strengthen the necessary mechanism to carry forward the work. The Honorable State Minister is intervening to make a big sacrifice for the local medical sector. To rebuild this system to avoid existing flaws and preserve reliability.
Ishara Mudugamuwa