Sri Lanka's health minister Keheliya Rambukwella speaking to Rudaw on August 31, 2022. Photo: Rudaw
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Despite the mass-scale economic and political depression that has engulfed all areas of life in Sri Lanka, the health sector’s prioritization and classification as an “essential service” has managed to curb its impact on the vital area, the country’s health minister told Rudaw on Wednesday.
Sri Lanka is currently plagued by extreme economic woes, the first of its kind ever since its independence from Britain in 1948. The crisis has affected all different sectors of the country, including the health sector, even if it was to a lesser degree.
Keheliya Rambukwella, the Sri Lankan health minister told Rudaw’s Payam Sarbast that the health sector takes a “very special situation” in the economic plight since its classification as an “essential service” has limited the effects of the all-encompassing crisis.
The minister stated that the country is struggling with medicine shortages in certain areas, but affirmed that there is no short supply of essential medicines, those for cases of “life and death,” as they are still available in stock.
Rambukwella denied the claims that the health sector has struggled with providing adequate assistance to pregnant women, children, or in cases of emergency, due to the crisis, saying that even though they have been impacted by the plight to some extent, the damage is not in an “unmanageable proportion.”
A shortage of foreign currency and excessive foreign debts are attributed as one of the main reasons for the current crisis in Sri Lanka, leading to the country’s inability to pay for imports of staple food and fuel.
Vastly blamed for the crisis is former Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who fled the country in July in light of widespread protests in the capital city of Colombo which accused him of corruption and bankrupting the country.
He returned from exile to Sri Lanka on Friday, AFP reported.
The World Food Programme (WFP) estimates that more than 6 million people in Sri Lanka, around 30 percent of the country’s population, struggle with food insecurity and are in need of humanitarian assistance, adding that one in four people is skipping a meal per day.
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