Sri Lankan doctors warned on Sunday April 10 that they were almost out of life-saving drugs, stressing that the economic crisis was likely to claim more victims on the island than the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Sri Lanka Medical Association (SLMA) explained on Sunday that the country’s hospitals no longer had access to imported medical equipment and life-saving drugs. Several facilities have already suspended routine operations since last month because they ran out of anaesthetics, and SLMA has stressed that even emergency procedures may not be possible very soon.
” We have to make very difficult choices. We must decide who will be cured and who will not “, lamented the association, after having made public a letter sent to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa a few days earlier to warn him of the situation. ” If supplies are not restored in the coming days, the victims will be many more than those of the pandemic “, underlined the organization of doctors.
Worst recession since independence
Weeks of power cuts, severe food and fuel shortages have plunged much of the population into misery as Sri Lanka faces its worst recession since independence in 1948. Growing public anger over the economic crisis has given rise since Saturday to major demonstrations calling for the resignation of President Rajapaksa.
Thousands of people braved heavy rain outside the president’s office in the capital Colombo on Sunday, April 10, for the second day in a row.
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(With AFP)