Providing quality healthcare, our goal – Dr. Mahipala

Health Secretary Dr. Palitha Mahipala said that the main objective of the Health Ministry is to provide quality healthcare to the people. Giving medicine is very important there. In order to provide the necessary amount of medicines to the hospital, the Health Ministry coordinates the importation of medicines, the release from the port, the distribution of medicines locally and to the warehouses of the hospitals.

Dr. Mahipala and National Drug Regulatory Authority Chairman Dr. Ananda Wijewickrama recently briefed the media about the programme of importing drugs into Sri Lanka, releasing drugs from the port and distributing them to hospitals in an orderly and prompt manner.

The Health Ministry has several departments for that. The National Drug Regulatory Authority can be pointed out as one of them.

National Drug Regulatory Authority Chairman Dr. Ananda Wijewickrama said that the main responsibility of the National Medicines Regulatory Authority is to provide medicines to the people in a safe and efficient manner. There were various crisis situations regarding this in the past. Various measures have been taken to resolve the crisis situations that have been existing and to prevent the delays that have occurred and to carry out the future activities in a proper manner.

“Drug registrations are done in this country by considering various issues such as the quality of the drug while providing the drugs. What it does is to establish the standard. Thus, when the registrations of the quality-confirmed drugs expire, the registrations should be renewed. Due to the accumulation of many files with applications that need to be repeated in the last two years, there were some delays in the past. But in order to avoid that delay, it has been decided to re-register all previously registered medicines until the end of next June. By doing so, it will be possible to get medicines into Sri Lanka and release them from the port very easily and quickly, avoiding the delays that may occur,” he said.

Dr. Wijewickrema further said that certain media had reported in different ways in the last two or three days. “Drug Regulatory Authority is working on the letter. Drug stock gets stuck at the port, drug stock stuck at the port is a conspiracy by the drug regulatory authority. We are very sorry to report such news. The purpose of the Drug Regulatory Authority is not to block drugs and create a shortage of drugs. Drugs should be given to the people in a proper way. Currently, we are working to stop the drug stocks from getting stuck at the port and take necessary measures to release them soon. We will ensure that there are no delays.

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