With the economic crisis spiraling out of control, Sri Lanka is facing a medical emergency. Hospitals in the country are reeling under severe shortage of medicines, including essential drugs. The long hours of power outage and fuel shortage are adding further woes as these affect the functioning of ventilators and ambulances.
“The endotracheal tubes that we use in neonatal departments are out of stock. We can’t reuse the tubes. But we are sterilising and reusing them these days. Even that may run out of stock next week,” a senior surgeon at the surgical department of Colombo North teaching hospital, who did not want to be named, said. This surgeon has been asking his patients to buy essentials like plasters and suture materials from an outside pharmacy before starting a surgery. “We don’t have suture materials. I am clueless how the government will resolve this.”
On Sunday, as the protests at Galle Face sea front raged for the second consecutive day despite the rains, a staff nurse working at one of the teaching hospitals said she feels helpless when patients come in for emergency treatments. “What can I do without medicine? We are running out of even anesthetics. But I feel no one is worried about it,” said the nurse on condition of anonymity.
Sri Lanka has 17 teaching hospitals, including the most popular ones at Kandy, Anuradhapura, Colombo and Jaffna. Apart from government teaching hospitals, there is the national general hospital in Kandy, and two provincial general hospitals and general hospitals in every district. There are rural and base hospitals across the country.
The rural and the base hospitals said they do not have the essential drugs. “We are managing the generators for ICUs with special allocation of fuel from the petroleum corporation. But we do not know how long we can manage. The medical system is almost in the verge of breaking,” said a health officer in Kandy.
On April 5, the country’s health department declared health emergency in the wake of shortage of essential drugs. The government medical officers association, in the beginning of April, called for a meeting and declared a medical crisis. “We are importing 85 per cent of our pharma requirements. With the foreign exchange reserves plunging to a new low doctors are facing the worst times,” said the officer.
The health officer said ambulance services have also come down drastically and people are asked to come in their own vehicles to hospitals if there is an emergency.
Dr. L.P. Saman Kumara, a senior consultant neonatologist and president of perinatal society of Sri Lanka has sent an open request for donations. In a letter, he said donations can be made to director of medical supplies division at the ministry of health, and asked for endotracheal tubes and neonatal ventilator circuits in particular.
With the economic crisis leading to a political stalemate, the health department seems to be hit really hard.
