CMC wants powers to raid pharmacies

By Dilanthi Jayamanne

The Colombo Municipal Council Public Health Department wants the Health Ministry to allow it to carry out checks on city pharmacies.

PHD sources said yesterday that they had requested Director General of Health Services (DGHS) to transfer the power of inspecting private pharmacies to the CMC’s food and drug inspectors, who had been given the same training as those serving the Food and Drug Authority of the Health Ministry.

The Council has six food and drug inspectors whereas the Health Ministry doe not have enough personnel to cover the whole country. In Colombo alone there were over one hundred pharmacies, sources said.

Although the DGHS responded positively to the PHD’s request, nothing had been done so far, sources said.

The Health Ministry spokesman said that there were over three thousand private pharmacies in the country. There were many food and drug inspectors affiliated to MOH offices in all parts of the country and inspections were being carried out by them.

The MOH offices were either under the local government or the Health Ministry, he said.

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