
Puthukudiyiruppu hospital faces medicines shortage
The first quarter medicine quota for the Puthukkudiyiruppu hospital has not arrived yet. This quota should have arrived before the start of the first quarter in January. However the quarter ended in March and the hospital is now struggling without the quota for six months.
Indeed all the hospitals in Vanni are facing an ongoing shortage of medicine. When this becomes very serious and a danger to the health of the people, health service staff as well as INGOs, like ICRC, makes some noises. This often leads to some medicine being allowed into Vanni by the Sri Lankan Defense Ministry and in due course the shortage starts all over again and the story repeats. In January 2007, when scores of people, including many very young children were injured in a Sri Lankan aerial bombing in Mannar, the hospitals made loud noises about even shortages of bandages for the injured victims. This led to some medicine quota being allowed into Vanni. This cycle, of blocking medicines, this eventually leading to dangerous shortage of medicines, people then making loud noises about shortage of medicines, and then some amount of it being allowed it, has been going on now for more than a year, indeed for five quarters. All along this cycle, many people go without medicines, worsening their illness.
05 May 2008
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