Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa told Parliament on Friday that Sri Lanka is facing a severe shortage of cancer treatment drugs and other essential medicines, and urged the government to act immediately.
Premadasa claimed that patients were facing serious difficulties because the shortages affected both government and private healthcare institutions.
He listed several medicines that he said were unavailable: Adrenaline, Atropine, Piriton, Ondansetron, Maxolon, Phenergan and Hydrocortisone. He claimed that some of them could not be found even in private hospitals.
The Opposition Leader warned that shortages of cancer drugs and other medicines were placing an additional burden on patients seeking treatment. He asked the government to give the matter immediate attention and to take urgent steps to ensure an uninterrupted supply of essential medicines across the healthcare system.
The claims were made in Parliament and have not been independently verified. No government response was included in the reports available at the time of writing.
Background
Medicines used in state hospitals are supplied mainly through the government’s central procurement system, which is run by the Ministry of Health. Private hospitals and pharmacies import and stock their own supplies, so a shortage that reaches both sectors would point to a problem further up the supply chain, such as imports, payments to suppliers or registration of products.
Sri Lanka has dealt with shortages of medicines before. During the economic crisis of 2022, hospitals reported running short of many drugs and surgical supplies, after the country ran short of foreign currency needed for imports. Supplies later improved with help from donations and the recovery of the economy, although periodic complaints about particular drugs have continued.
The medicines Premadasa named are widely used in everyday and emergency care. Adrenaline and atropine are used in emergencies. Ondansetron and Maxolon are used to control nausea and vomiting, including in patients receiving cancer treatment. Piriton and Phenergan are antihistamines used for allergic reactions, and Hydrocortisone is a steroid used in a range of conditions.
What it means
Patients who depend on regular treatment, including those receiving cancer care, are the people most affected if a drug is not available in a hospital pharmacy. Families are often left to look for the medicine in private pharmacies, which can cost more.
Anyone who is told that a prescribed medicine is out of stock should ask the hospital or pharmacy whether an alternative of the same kind can be used, and should not switch or skip a treatment without the advice of their doctor. The Ministry of Health has not yet responded publicly to the list of medicines named in Parliament.
