The Health Ministry sources said the launch of the software ‘SWASTHA’ for drug regulation, drug distribution and management in hospitals and state pharmacies has to be postponed for a period of three months due to technical errors.
An amount of Rs.101 million has been spent on the software, and it was introduced to pharmacists on March 18.
However, pharmacists have complained that it is difficult to use the software and that more training and time is needed to use it.
Introducing the software, Ministry’s Health Informatics Consultant Dr. Nishan Siriwardena said that it is possible to obtain accurate data on the shortage of medicines in hospitals and how medicines have been distributed to hospitals from using the software.
Since 2008, data on medicines in medical supplies units and hospitals has been collected using a software developed in Australia. However, the Ministry said that it is not possible to obtain proper data about the medicines available in this country from that software.
The Swastha software was introduced by the University of Colombo.
Source – Aruna
