Sri Lankan physicians warned on Sunday that life-saving drugs were running scarce and that the island nation’s economic woes were threatening to kill more people than the coronavirus pandemic outbreak.
According to an AFP report, the Sri Lanka Medical Association (SLMA) said that hospitals in the country were no longer able to acquire imported medical tools and essential pharmaceuticals.
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Several hospitals have already halted routine surgeries due to a dangerous shortage of anaesthetics, but the SLMA warned that even emergency procedures may not be viable soon.
“We are made to make very difficult choices. We have to decide who gets treatment and who will not,” the organisation said on Sunday as they released a letter they had sent President Gotabaya Rajapaksa a few days earlier, warning him about the situation.
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“If supplies are not restored within days, the casualties will be far worse than from the pandemic.”
Weeks of power outages, as well as severe shortages of food, fuel, and pharmaceuticals, have caused havoc on Sri Lanka’s economy, which is undergoing its worst slump since 1948.
Government mismanagement, years of accumulated debt, and ill-advised tax cuts, according to economists, have aggravated Sri Lanka’s dilemma say experts.
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Large rallies calling for Rajapaksa’s resignation have erupted as public outrage over the crisis grows.
Rajapaksa’s government is seeking an IMF bailout to help the country escape the crisis, which has seen food prices spike and the local currency lose a third of its value in the last month.
On Friday, Ali Sabry, the island’s new finance minister, told parliament that he expects IMF will provide $3 billion in support for the island’s balance of payments over the next three years. On Saturday, business leaders joined calls for the president to resign, claiming that the island’s persistent fuel shortages had caused their enterprises to lose money.
Sri Lanka is struggling to service its mounting $51 billion international debt due to a catastrophic lack of foreign cash, with the pandemic jeopardising essential revenue from tourism and remittances.
(With inputs from agencies)
