[Excerpts from the press conference held at the head office of the JVP on 14.07.2023.]
“Many different issues have emerged in today’s health sector. Several controversial deaths were reported in hospitals. A 21-year-old girl died after being admitted to the Peradeniya Hospital for treatment of a stomach ailment. She has died from an allergic reaction to the medicine given to her. An assistant of the Drug Regulatory Authority died while receiving treatment at the Panadura Basic Hospital. Before that, several deaths were caused by administering anaesthetic drugs at the Peradeniya Hospital. Before that, several eye patients became blind after treatment at the Nuwara Eliya Hospital. A death occurred after receiving treatment for an eye disease at the Colombo Eye Hospital.
The NPP has paid particular attention to several controversial deaths that have made people uneasy. As a movement working to provide good health services to the country’s people, we do not take these matters for granted.This situation has arisen in the health service due to a mafia that includes the Minister of Health, several officials of the Ministry of Health, several officials of the Drug Regulatory Authority and several officials of the Pharmaceutical Corporation. Whether medicines are brought to Sri Lanka by the government or the private sector, the government is ultimately responsible for providing them to the citizens. When importing medicine, there are stricter rules than when importing food. That is why the importation of medications has been subjected to solid regulation by the Drug Regulatory Authority. Medicines from a foreign company are imported only from a registered agent in Sri Lanka. The main points like efficiency, safety, quality and the amount that can be supplied are considered, and sample testing is also done in laboratories of the regulatory authority based on the need. This is the process by which the government mediates to provide proper medicines to the citizens.
We do not say that this process is 100% transparent and pure. Loopholes have been kept for smugglers to wriggle in. According to a report presented by the Drug Regulatory Authority, it has been revealed with data that some companies have brought other drugs instead of the samples submitted for registration. It is a very serious situation. Sometimes they are obtained from places where there is no address of the manufacturer.If death does not occur due to such drugs, no attention is paid to the side effects. Under Section 109 of the National Medicines Regulatory Authority Act, the Ministry of Health has been given the authority to import medicines outside of the standard procedure only if an emergency arises. In order to deal with the crisis, unregistered companies are also given the opportunity with the approval of a committee of the Ministry of Health. Unregistered medicines are being imported without any inspection. It is the actual situation behind the recent deaths. We can confirm that these deaths are due to corrupt transactions.
Three deaths have occurred in Peradeniya Hospital due to anaesthetic drugs obtained under emergency purchases. Deaths have been reported due to the importation of this drug outside of the normal purchase process.It was reported that some of the deaths were caused by the drug ‘propofol’ bought from unregistered companies taking advantage of this situation without a committee and only with the signature of the Chief Executive of the Drug Regulatory Authority.Despite Homagama Hospital reporting about this medicine on May 15, no investigation was done. Matara and Theldeniya hospitals also reported complications from this drug in mid-May. Around the third week of June, an anesthesiologist at Peradeniya Hospital reported about several problems caused by using this medicine. It has been reported that these patients had to be given a higher dose than usual for anaesthesia and that fever and respiratory complications occurred after administering the medicine.
A 30-year-old woman died at the Colombo Eye Hospital due to the use of ‘Propofol’, which had been reported by many hospitals before any death occurred. There is a suspicion regarding the death of a child in Peradeniya Hospital. These people died from drugs brought by unregistered companies. Patients treated at Nuwara Eliya Eye Hospital also became blind. It has been revealed that inferior medicines were used, and the company in question was not even re-registered in Sri Lanka around 2019. The import was initially allowed through a temporary license for one year and then extended to five years without any inspection.
Some drugs and vaccines can cause complications at a rate of one in one hundred thousand, five hundred thousand, or one in ten. That possibility is not ruled out. There is an environment where the drug related to the last death in Peradeniya had to be used. The hospital did not have medicines with fewer complications. The shortage of drugs and equipment has forced specialists and doctors to treat patients with available drugs. Taking advantage of this situation, the group of officials led by the Minister are carrying out the smuggling of substandard medicines through hand-to-hand transactions without any concern for the people’s lives. Due to the country’s bankruptcy, foreign organizations and governments have given loans to our country to import medicines. The entire process of importing medication from India or any other country after the loan is approved is under the Ministry of Health. A method is being carried out to bring it to the Minister with the signatures of the officials.
Several patients in our country have lost their lives because of this corrupt process. Health Minister Keheliya Rambukwella is in the process of suppressing those incidents by appointing various committees regarding each of these incidents. We warn him not to follow the process of getting a teledrama to be broadcasted in the public media by pulling the teledrama out of the queue. People’s lives are not lost because a tele drama was thrown out of the queue. It is said that the health minister went to India with some officials to observe some drug manufacturing companies to implement the same process more speedily. He has a desire to buy drugs from unregistered companies in an unregistered manner, using clauses where drugs can be obtained in an epidemic situation. All his activities reveal his connection behind these corrupt deals. The current chairman of the State Pharmaceutical Corporation is a person who was previously removed on various charges. But he is working with the Minister and leading people to death. Due to this, some people are hesitant about getting treatment and surgery, and it breaks their trust in government hospitals. Formal investigations should be conducted on all these incidents, and the truth should be revealed to the people. From the President to the Cabinet, the entire government should take responsibility for losing patients’ lives. The people should take action to take a political decision about the government playing with the people’s lives.