Today we talk about something very close to the hearts of the entire population, especially the ordinary people above the age between 50 or 60, all who suffer from Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs) and all the other illnesses, pensioners etc. For some individuals medications matter more than food and they are on certain medications for the rest of their lives. Only the people who suffer some type of disease know the value of reducing the sky high prices of drugs. We are talking about introducing a price revision for 60 medicines.
The prices of several medicines have been revised by way of an Extraordinary Gazette issued by Minister of Health Dr. Keheliya Rambukwella with effect from June 26 (next Monday). People can buy drugs for lower prices in another seven days’ time.
Accordingly, the prices of 60 medicines will be reduced by 16 percent as per the relevant gazette, which is due to come into effect from June 26, 2023. Insulin, Thyroxine, Olanzapine are among the drugs subjected to a maximum retail price reduction of 16 percent. Some private pharmacies have already reduced their prices of some medications.
The prices of almost all medications, especially the medications used by people who suffer from NCDs skyrocketed along with the depreciation of the rupee against the dollar and even some rich people could not afford to buy medications from the private pharmacies. The ordinary people suffered a lot for a long period of time and it is almost one and half years.
Some people totally gave up buying the medications prescribed to them by their physicians and some people reduced the number of times they take their regular medications. For example, they stopped taking their prescribed medications daily and they took those medications every other day. Some started to use the medications only when they feel sick and some started to use medications only when they have some money to buy those expensive regular medications.
It was the country’s workforce which was severely affected by all those practices not approved by any physician in the country. The overall health of the country was at risk. Some poor people even started to use Ayurvedic medications after giving up extremely expensive Western medications prescribed for them by their physicians. They did it because they did not have any other option after meeting all the other requirements of their families, especially their children’s food requirements etc.
This situation made people’s health worse because they were very worried without being able to buy their essential medications that control their diseases and save their lives. No one likes to stop using medications without his/her physician’s instructions because almost everyone knows that it is not acceptable and safe. Only the people who use at least one or two medications regularly for their illnesses know the plight of not being able to buy medications and healthy people who do not use any medications do not understand at all this silent suffering.
The relief offered to those people who suffered for one and half years through the extraordinary gazette notification issued by the Health Minister is immeasurable and it reduced the burden fell on the State health service because now all the people who can afford will start to buy their regular medications without seeking the service of State Hospitals where they can receive their regular drugs free of charge. Usually no one likes to go to clinics in State Hospitals and wait in queues for hours in order to obtain their medications. Therefore all people who have some money in their hands will buy their medications from the private sector.
But in the past even the people who worked in the private sector and earned a reasonable salary did not have adequate money to buy their regular medications because they had to pay over Rs. 8,000 to buy medications they need just for one week. Before the economic crisis they just paid around Rs. 1,000 for the same amount of medications.
The introduction of maximum prices for certain medications such as Insulin and Thyroxine is very significant because a large number of people use those medications. A large number of people, especially the people above the ages of 40 and 50 use Thyroxine which is an essential hormone because unlike in the past by now a significant portion of the population suffer from various hormonal deficiencies. Some of the recent statistics revealed to the country by consultants tell the story.
According to Professor Prasad Katulanda (MBBS, MD, FRCP (Lon), FCCP, FACE, DPhil (Oxford), one in every four Sri Lankans are suffering from hypertension and the percentage of hypertension patients among the people above the age of 60 is 50 percent.
According to International statistics, Sri Lanka has very high diabetes prevalence, significantly higher than the current global estimates for any other Asian country. Adult prevalence of diabetes was 23 percent in Sri Lanka in 2019, and pre-diabetes was 30 percent, significantly higher than previous estimates have suggested. It was four years ago. We are in 2023 now. This shows the value of introducing maximum prices for 60 medications and requirement to reduce the prices at least by 25 percent in more medications.
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