Around 21,000 Tender Applications were called to buy essential drugs for state hospitals during January to March this year according to the Ministry Of Health .Although such a large number of tenders were called this year there is a shortage of some essential drugs in State Hospitals.
Ministry Officials further said that there is a monopoly in the drug supplying trade in Sri Lanka and the breaking of that monopoly is beyond their reach .The supplying of low quality drugs to hospitals by suppliers as well as delaying of drug supplying process are the main reasons for this drug shortage