SL: NO MEDICINE TO MULLAITIVU HOSPITAL!!!

No medicine to Mullaitivu hospital: Officials


Essential supplies including medicine and vaccinations have not been supplied to the Mullaitivu hospital for months, authorities said.
Acting Deputy Director of Health, Mullaitivu district, Dr. Osmund Charles told the BBC Sandeshaya that only Paracetamol and vitamins were left with the hospital.

"We didn't receive children's medicine even last time. Malarial patients are found everyday but we do not have medicine to treat them," he said.

Dr. Charles added the hospital had not received any medicine for the last four months and the patients with snake bites also cannot be treated due to lack of anti-venom.

There is also a huge shortage of fuel for ambulances and electricity in the region, according to the Acting Deputy Director of Health in the Mullaitivu district.

"The ventillators for the patients need to be manually operated due to the shortage of electricity. It is impossible to do it by hand for a long period. We lost one patient because we did not have a workable ventillator," he told the Sinhala Service.

The health authorities pledged to investigate the shortage of medicine.Dr. Athula Kahandaliyanage, Secretary to the Health Ministry, told Sandeshaya that enough supplies of medicine to last till the end of the year had been sent to Vavuniya.

"We recently had meetings with the government agents from Vavuniya, Mullaitivu, Mannar and Kilinochchi. They were happy with the supply of essential goods.

These people were from the area and they knew the needs first hand. There were no requests for any medicine. Even the Indian High Commissioner attended this meeting," he said.

"There are practical problems in sending medicines as those two districts are still uncleared. However, the government has sent enough medicine to Vavuniya," Dr. Kahandaliyanage said.

He added the medicine supplies would be sent to Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu districts as soon as the routes would be cleared.
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