18 May 2022 06:33 pm
Failure to receive essential blood gas analyzers required to maintain the Intensive Care Units (ICU) and High Dependency Units (HDU) in all hospitals, a severe crisis has arisen in which the units cannot be maintained, the Federation of Health Professionals (FHP) said.
As a result, patients who are being treated under ventilators in ICUs and HDUs are at high risk, and it could be futile to drive those units without blood gas analyzers.
The Federation said around Rs. 300 million had to be paid to the suppliers of the reagents required to operate those analyzers.
However, the relevant companies have informed us that it is no longer possible to provide reagents due to the negligence of the Health Ministry for not paying them for more than 4 months, they said.
Due to the irresponsibility of the Health Ministry officials to apply a temporary solution to such problems, suppliers are in a critical situation and some companies have gone bankrupt due to lending to the Ministry. Some companies have gone international blacklisted, the Federation added. (Chaturanga Samarawickrama)