Letters to the Editor
View(s):Affordability or efficacy: NMRA must get its act together and bring back quality drugs
Warren Buffet and Oscar Wilde are known to have clearly differentiated the meaning of ‘price’ and ‘value’.
The local drug authority is acting in total ignorance of the services rendered by our pharmaceutical industry to Sri Lanka by showing least respect to the above mentioned principles by providing cheap prices of drugs of unknown quality chasing away all well-known drugs in the market. Moreover they have created an acute shortage of drugs making people walk from one pharmacy to another to obtain prescribed drugs when their basic obligation is to ensure three important criteria: safety, efficacy and availability which really speaks of the value of the drug.
Most patient- conscious doctors are now looking high and low for drugs with the above properties but the NMRA seems to not be bothered by any of the above, but affordability. They charge thousands of US dollars for the registration of a drug asking for all sorts of details about the drug manufactory but what qualifies the approval is only the price no matter what the quality or safety is. Classic examples are the recent reports of people suffering serious eye reactions and even blindness and a Health Minister being put behind bars.
We all know ‘affordability’ is an abstract word; what is affordable to many may not be affordable to another. Take the example of a good shirt or car. Should all be deprived of better quality which obviously will be more expensive than products of poorer quality?
The NMRA must bring back the well-established safe and efficacious drugs they chased out of the country. This will help people recover sooner and get back to work to better contribute to the economy.
D.A. Gunethilake
Unnecessary crowding due to unnecessary queues
Queues! Not the temporary ones for fuel or rice that appear from time to time, but the permanent queues we encounter at places like the passport office, identity card office, and hospital clinics. People often gather at these institutions well before opening hours, crowding the premises unnecessarily.
Why don’t the officers in charge take steps to reduce these waiting times? In most of these places, the rush subsides within two or three hours after opening. If the public were properly informed of the operating hours, they could arrive at a reasonable time instead of crowding from early morning.
Consider two examples:
- A couple visited the passport office around 10 a.m. to apply for their first passport (not the one-day service). Only two people were ahead of them. Within 45–50 minutes, all formalities were completed. Yet, prior advice from friends had been to be there by 7:30 a.m.
- At Apeksha Hospital, a patient arrived at 7 a.m. for his first appointment and joined the crowd. By the time he finished around 10:30 a.m., the premises were almost deserted.
What do these incidents reveal? That much of the crowding is unnecessary, caused by misinformation and habit rather than actual demand. Public awareness campaigns could encourage people to come at staggered times.
Moreover, institutions like the passport office could introduce structured systems to manage attendance, for example:
- Appointments booked in advance
- Allocating days by alphabetical order (e.g., names starting with A–E on Mondays, F–J on Tuesdays, and so on)
Another form of time-wasting occurs at doctor channelling centres, and this is even more inhumane because it involves patients. Doctors, knowing well the time they can realistically arrive, allow centres to advertise a starting time that misleads patients. Worse still, doctors who visit multiple centres fix times for their second or third visits without accounting for delays at the earlier centre. This lack of coordination results in sick patients waiting for hours unnecessarily.
Such practices must be regularised. After all, neither doctors nor channelling centres provide their services free of charge. In fact, this may be the only place where the customer is not treated as king.
Whether at government offices or private medical centres, the common thread is inefficiency and disregard for the public’s time. By introducing appointment systems, staggered schedules, and stricter regulation of medical channelling centres, we can reduce queues, ease patient suffering, and restore dignity to public services.
Concerned reader Via email
Garlanding the unknown visitor at BIA
Sri Lanka, through the Tourism Development Authority, has long practised the custom of welcoming tourists at Bandaranaike International Airport with garlands and dance troupes –often celebrating symbolic milestones such as the ‘1000th visitor’. Yet one must ask: when offering such receptions, do we truly know who this person is? What is their purpose in visiting the country, how much will they spend, and in what activities will they engage?
At what point will our governments begin to earn foreign exchange in more dignified and sustainable ways, rather than relying on the export of cheap labour or a tourism industry that often brings as many harms as benefits?
The present administration, even before coming to power, boasted of its competence in developing natural resources. Foreign investors, we were told, were eagerly awaiting an NPP victory to rush in and establish their enterprises. Many voters once believed in that promise too and are now disillusioned.
Deshapriya Rajapaksha Via email
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