President Ranil Wickremesinghe has instructed the health authorities to submit proposals related to the amendment of the National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA) Act in order to immediately solve the shortage of drugs in the country. The President also informed the authorities to speed up the re-approval process for drugs approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the country to prevent the shortage of drugs for surgical procedures.
President Wickremesinghe also instructed officials to look into the possibility of directly ordering drugs approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the United Kingdom (UK) instead of ordering them through the NMRA process. The President gave these instructions during the discussion held at the President’s Office on Friday on issues related to the health sector.
The President emphasized that the Ministry of Health should ensure that there is no delay in getting medicines for the people and that there needs to be transparency about all medicines available in this country. The President said that a special website maintained by the Ministry of Health should provide data on the amount of drugs owned by each hospital and the total amount of drugs that can be obtained on a daily basis.
The President also issued instructions with regard to the report submitted by the sub-committee appointed by the Cabinet to extend the retirement age of doctors up to 63 years until the end of 2024 and to take further decisions on the needs of the Ministry of Health in special cases. The President also mentioned that the regulations should be amended so that those who have studied arts stream can be recruited for nursing training in the recruitment of nurses. Attention was also paid to the quality of drugs, equipment and vaccines imported into the country and the recent reports on alleged cases of medical negligence at healthcare institutions.