Sri Lanka is facing an unprecedented health crisis with stocks of several essential medicines at critically low levels and many Sri Lankans are losing access to care as the ongoing economic crisis takes a severe toll on the health sector. WHO is working closely with development partners and donors to support the Ministry of Health in ensuring swift, strategic and coherent responses in addressing shortages of medicines and medical supplies. WHO’s response has been focused on ensuring coordination with development partners and donor countries to procure and deliver essential supplies and equipment where it is needed the most.
Sri Lanka’s economic crisis is rapidly turning into a health crisis amid growing shortages of basic drugs and medical supplies. The annual budget estimate for importing medicines and surgical consumables is 300 million US dollars; so far only 80 million US dollars is available for 2023 through donors. As of January 2023, Sri Lanka still faces a funding gap of 220 million US dollars to import essential medicines and supplies and there is an urgent need for this gap to be addressed with the help of partners.
“The economic crisis presented several challenges to the health sector,” explains Dr. Asela Gunawardena, Director General of Health Services. “We will need to work together with all key counterparts to address the fallout from the economic crisis to strengthen supplies of medicines and medical supplies and support communities to withstand difficult circ*mstances.”
Responding to the escalating health crisis, WHO has supported the delivery of essential medicines and supplies to sustain the availability of critical lifesaving medical care for all. WHO is supporting the Government’s response to the crisis through direct financial assistance and the ongoing provision of additional medicines and consumables worth a total of 7.1 million US dollars in 2022 to enhance and sustain the availability of medical supplies.
Highlighting the importance of collaborating with international partners to respond to the ongoing crisis, Dr Alaka Singh, the WHO Representative to Sri Lanka said, “Ensuring continued provision of essential medicines and medical supplies is critical to ensuring access to affordable, equitable and quality health care for all. We’ve had a remarkable collaboration with our donors and development partners, which have helped us to accelerate procurement and to scale up our response to help more people access life-saving health care.”
As part of the financial assistance, WHO has provided direct financial support worth 1.5 million US dollars, funded by the Republic of Italy and the US Department of State, to the Government to procure five types of essential medicines, reagents for blood banks, and tuberculosis treatment drugs at the height of the crisis in May 2022. This timely donation enabled the Ministry of Health to open a direct line of credit to immediately procure vital medicines addressing critical shortages.
With an additional 1.5 million US dollars funding provided by the US Department of State to WHO, the Sri Lankan health system is being further bolstered through the procurement of 27 urgently needed medicines, including antibiotics, insulin, HIV rapid diagnostic test kits, and medicines used to reduce morbidity and mortality among COVID-19 patients. WHO-mediated donations from the Republic of Indonesia and Government of Thailand have further enhanced collaborative international humanitarian assistance.
WHO Headquarters has been providing additional medicines and consumables worth 4.1 million US dollars. Rabies vaccines, immunosuppressants for transplant patients and cancer medications have already been delivered to the Ministry of Health. Laboratory surveillance equipment and consumables were also procured to strengthen the influenza surveillance capabilities in four institutions including the medical research institute in Sri Lanka.
Earlier in 2022, WHO helped strengthen the country’s COVID-19 testing capacities through the procurement of 175,000 COVID-19 Rapid Antigen Test Kits, by mobilizing funds from the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO).
As the UN technical lead on health, WHO has coordinated the health sector response under the UN Central Emergency Response Fund, worth approximately 1.25 million US dollars, to procure additional medicines with the support of UNDP procurement channels. WHO Country Office is also leading a funding request for an additional 9.7 million US dollars in partnership with UNFPA under the 2022 Humanitarian Needs and Priorities (HNP) Plan to respond to the urgent humanitarian needs in the country.
Caption: Handing over of medical supplies under UN CERF to the Ministry of Health in September 2022
Looking ahead, WHO Country Office will continue to analyse emerging health system needs to identify and address critical gaps in service delivery, health financing, human resources for health and supply of essential medicines. As a country that has performed consistently well on key health indicators with significant achievements well above the fellow countries in the income group, it is imperative to ensure progress is not rolled back. Through developing multisectoral responses grounded in robust evidence, Sri Lanka can safeguard its primary health care model as well as transform health systems to address health needs of its population.
