The Hon. Dewananda Suraweera

¶ 01 Question No. 492/2025 to the Minister of Health and Mass Media: Shortage of Pharmacists and External Pharmacist Examination: Details.

¶ 02 (a) Will he inform this House— (i) the number of registered pharmacies and the number of registered pharmacists in Sri Lanka, separately; (ii) whether the registered pharmacies should be operated under the supervision of a registered pharmacist, as per the National Medicines Regulatory Authority Act, No. 05 of 2015; (iii) whether he accepts that there is a shortage of registered pharmacists compared to the number of registered pharmacies; and (iv) if so, the measures taken so far and those to be taken in the future to address the shortage, separately?

¶ 03 (b) Will he also inform this House— (i) whether he is aware that a credit pass for Chemistry at the GCE (A/L) Examination is required to register with the Sri Lanka Medical Council in order to sit for the External Pharmacist Examination; and (ii) whether he accepts that the pass rate is as low as 6 per cent of the total number of candidates who took the examination as only 99 out of about 1,700 candidates have passed the recent External Pharmacist Examination?

¶ 04 (c) If not, why?