Total Drug Requirements From India and Bangladesh - Ministry .

The country’s full requirement of drugs, medical and laboratory equipment hitherto imported by registered medical suppliers will be purchased from India and Bangladesh on government to government agreements, Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena said yesterday.

The objective is to prevent large scale malpractices, delays and supply of low quality drugs. The relevant memorandum was to be submitted to the cabinet yesterday by Minister Sirisena.

“With the approval of the cabinet, I expect to suggest appointing a permanent ‘Cabinet Sub Committee’ to deal with all issues pertaining to medicinal drugs and equipment which will deviate totally from the current purchasing mechanism,” Minister Sirisena said.

He said the current tender procedure will be done away with and there will be no private drug importers or suppliers under the new system.

The annual drugs and medical equipment bill of the health ministry exceeds Rs. 14 billion. The drugs import bill has exceeded Rs. 16 billion for the last six months alone this year, he added.

“The main objective of the new system is to do away with red-tape as administrative inefficiency has contributed to delay the supply of drugs and medical equipment to hospitals and other state medical institutions ons many instances.

We also expect that supply of sub-standard drugs by private suppliers will come to an end with the introduction of the new system,” Minister Sirisena stressed.

The speedier supply of drugs and minimizing the bill for drug imports are the other objectives. The health ministry imports about 24,000 varieties of drugs, vaccines, injections and medical equipment annually. The main supplier is India.

The government expects to sign bilateral agreements with the governments of India and Bangladesh  for the purpose that the agreements could be reviewed annually or biannually.

Minister Sirisena said he expects to discuss the matter with his Indian counterpart on August 1st and with the Bangladesh health minister soon after. The health ministry came under heavy public criticism in the recent past for supplying sub-standard drugs, failure to supply drugs on time and for drug shortage. Ministry was even compelled to postpone the ‘National Immunization Programme’ after a few school girls succumbed to complications developed after they were given injections for rubella. The health ministry in the meantime blacklisted about 6 drug suppliers for importing and distributing of substandard drugs at state hospitals.

Source : print.dailymirror.lk