Medicines shortage drives health staff to roads

Colombo: Hatton in Sri Lanka’s central province is no longer a serene hillside paradise. The scenic tea gardens on the rolling hills in Hatton, 120km from Colombo, is rocked by protests and long restless queues for cooking gas. On Friday, doctors, paramedics and staff of a local government hospital took out a procession.

“We are worried. There is a huge shortage of medicines and there is no diesel for ambulances,” said a woman employee of a hospital, hol- ding up a placard bearing slogans against the government. In another part of the town, a queue for cooking gas grew longer in front a shop with a board that read ‘Delight Gas Point’. The district secretary, a senior official of the region, arrived to placate the crowd.

“I've been waiting for three days for a cylinder,” said A Ravikumar. After waiting for hours at another shop he had come to Delight on Dinbulla Road. It’s his lucky day as the officer orders a neighbour to break open the lock to distribute gas cylinders to the waiting people. “Over the past few months, the rise in cost of a cylinder has been 90%, an increase to Rs2750,” he said.