The National Eye Hospital, which was temporarily shut down following reports of patients who had undergone surgeries getting infected, will resume operations tomorrow (24), highly-placed sources at the Health Ministry told The Sunday Morning.
When contacted by The Sunday Morning, Minister of Health Keheliya Rambukwella would only say that the facility would commence operations early this week.
According to sources, primary investigations have revealed that the infections were allegedly related to an eyedrop, namely prednisolone, imported from India under the Indian Line of Credit. The particular batch of pharmaceutical drugs has been withdrawn from the hospital sector.
This is not the first incident reported in relation to the pharmaceuticals that were imported from India under the credit line. First, a suspected anaesthesia drug was withdrawn and sent for further investigations.
However, as per sources, the theatres have undergone a complete disinfection process following the identification of the infection.
When contacted by The Sunday Morning, Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) Media Spokesman Dr. Chamil Wijesinghe stressed that even though ideally all drugs should be tested before being used in the health sector, there was no such practice in Sri Lanka.
“Once the drug is used and if complaints come in, it is only then that investigations are launched. There is no practice of testing each and every drug that we import to Sri Lanka. The GMOA has stressed on the importance of testing before use in clinical procedures,” he said.
“There were several incidents reported about some people getting infected following surgeries. There are patients who come with infections. Usually there is a percentage but the incident numbers have gone up and following an investigation, the hospital has decided to close down the theatres temporarily to look into what has happened,” he said, highlighting the recent incident reported from the National Eye Hospital.
On 14 April, the National Eye Hospital of Sri Lanka suspended surgeries with immediate effect.
Earlier this month, the Medical Supplies Division (MSD) temporarily withdrew the use of three categories of an anaesthetic drug used for surgeries in Sri Lanka. It explained that the decision was taken owing to the fact that the quality of the drug could not be tested within the country and had been brought based solely on its performance in other countries and the relevant certificates provided by India.