As the stocks of optical lenses owned by the Medical Supply Division of the Ministry of Health have run out, there has been a situation where optical surgeries in hospitals have completely collapsed.
It is reported that although about fifteen thousand contact lenses are required for a monthly operation in hospitals across the island, they currently have only a small amount of contact lenses provided by the medical supply department and contact lenses received as donations.
9 types of contact lenses are distributed to the hospitals by the Medical Supply Division and the Medical Supply Division has informed the Ministry of Health that eye surgeries may face a severe crisis in the future as the Medical Supply Division does not have any contact lenses.
This shortage is due to the fact that the call for tenders for the purchase of contact lenses was conducted in an informal manner, and the Secretary of the Ministry of Health, Janaka Sri Chandragupta, ordered the cancellation of the tender and the initiation of investigations. This investigation is being conducted under the leadership of Dr. Saman Ratnayake, Additional Secretary, Health Ministry Secretary.
Ravi Kumudesh, President of the Health Professionals Association states that it has become a fashion in the Ministry of Health to cancel the tenders and resort to emergency purchases saying that the tenders are informal, and as a result, a technical mafia is operating that frequently discards normal purchases and resorts to emergency purchases.
He also stated that the decision to buy contact lenses urgently must be approved within the next few days, and due to this, the government will lose a lot of money due to having to buy contact lenses at a higher price.
He also said that if contact lenses were to be bought suddenly, the loss to the government would be more than 200 million per month.
While these contact lenses are available at a low price of Rs.8000/- to Rs.9500/- for regular purchase, if it is made as an ’emergency purchase’ due to management errors, the contact lenses will cost Rs.20,000/- to Rs.30,000/- more expensive. .
The amount that the government can lose from those contact lenses is Rs. 12000/- to Rs. Amount upto 20000/-. He pointed out that about 15,000 contact lenses per month are required for the government hospital service, and the amount lost by the government per month is between 200 and 300 million rupees.