Sri Lanka parliament debates the health minister’s fate over reports of lack of drugs, hospital care

By BHARATHA MALLAWARACHI
Associated Press

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lankan lawmakers are debating the fate of country’s health minister, seeking to remove him over his alleged failure to secure enough essential drugs and laboratory equipment that some say resulted in preventable deaths in hospitals. Sri Lanka provides free health service through state-run hospitals but they have suffered from a shortage of medicines and health workers, especially doctors, as a result of an economic crisis after the government suspended repayment of foreign loans. Opposition lawmakers said in a no-confidence motion that a failure by Health Minister Keheliya Rambukwella to fulfil his responsibilities has ruined the health sector and that “people have to pay the price of his irresponsible conduct with their lives.” Rambukwella has rejected the allegations.