State Minister of Production, Supply and Regulation of Pharmaceuticals Channa Jayasumana says all hospitals will be able to estimate drug orders through an integrated software from this year.
Speaking during the debate on the expenditure heads of the Ministry of Health yesterday, the State Minister said IT infrastructure of hospitals were not integrated despite high tech software being available.
He claimed the digitisation process was only completed midway using outdated software.
The State Minister said they hope to provide a software named “Shwastha” to all hospitals by October with the assistance of the School of Computing of the University of Colombo.
He said the World Bank will fund the programme.
State Minister Jayasumana said medicines worth approximately Rs.10-15 billion can be saved on based on the drug orders of each hospital.
The State Minister said a significant number of medicines had gone to waste as the procedure used to order medicine last year, was continued this year as well.
Minister of Health Keheliya Rambukwella joining the debate said the measure of success of the health sector is the mitigation of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Minister Rambukwella said COVID-mitigation efforts help determine the path of success.
The Minister said everyone claims the current situation is the result of 72 years of political actions.
However, he said it is unfair to provide a brief description of the 72 year journey.
Minister Rambukwella said life expectancy in 1948 was 51 years adding it increased to 77 in 2020.
He added this wasn’t a mere coincidence claiming it was due to the success of the health sector throughout the years.
