Death toll from renal failures has reduced: Rajitha

The death toll from renal failures has reduced during the last three years due to increased awareness and the availability of dialysis machines in hospitals and at some patients’ houses for overnight dialysis, the Minister of Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine Dr. Rajitha Senaratne confirmed at Parliament yesterday.

The Minister, joining the Committee Stage Program of Budget 2019, held that the efficient programs of the Government have reduced the number of patients suffering from renal failure in Anuradhapura district from 3,327 in 2016 to 2,011 in 2018. According to Dr. Senaratne, the number of patients in Polonnaruwa district has reduced to 1,048 last year from 1,876 in 2016. 

Revealing plans to reduce the death toll from renal failures, especially in the dry zone, the Minister said: “The Government changed the health policies to address the renal failure issue. As a result, the number of deaths has come down. There were only 228 dialysis machines when I took over in 2015. We were able to increase it to 500. Our aim is to increase it to 1,000 by the end of 2019.”

Moving on with the price reduction of selected drugs, the Minister held that the companies could no longer dictate terms on Government selling their products at extremely high prices. According to the Minister, the Government will bring in price control on more essential drugs.

Referring to an expensive cancer treatment drug sold by a multinational company, the Minister said: “I inquired the Chairman of the National Medicines Regulatory Authority about this. It was revealed that the vaccine had originally been priced at Rs. 285,000 and after a slight change of the drug, the company had rebranded it and marketed it at a higher price. Although it has only been days since the drug was released, the doctors in Sri Lanka prescribe this to cancer patients,” said Senaratne.

“When I halted the purchase of this vaccine, the company took legal action against the measure. Even oncologists spoke against me. However, we won the case and the courts warned the oncologists,” he added, confirming the increase of a limit of Rs. 1.5 million on one cancer patient, spent by the Government. According to him, yesterday, a cancer patient had received services worth Rs. 45 million. 

(AH)