Health Minister Dr Rajitha Senaratne yesterday pledged to further implement the Senaka Bibile Drug Policy by reducing the prices of more medicinal drugs.
Having issued the gazette notification reducing the price of stents used in heart surgery from Friday (04) midnight, Senaratne was aiming at reducing more drug prices. Some 48 essential drug types had already been brought under price control, the Minister said.
Minister Senaratne accused certain doctors of attempting to sabotage the process of providing free lenses to cataract patients. He alleged that those doctors told patients and their relatives the lenses provided by the free health service were unavailable and that they should be purchased from the private sector. That was because of the commissions they received from those who were dealing in lenses.
By the end of this year the requirement of lenses for government hospitals would be over 100,000, the Health Minister observed.
