COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s state-run hospitals are running out of life-saving medicines due to a shortage of dollars needed to import essentials as the country reels from a dire economic crisis, officials said Tuesday.

Teaching Hospital Peradeniya which serves a population of 2.4 million people in the Central province said it was suspending all routine surgeries and was out of anaesthetic drugs and other essentials for operations.

A key health trade union said the problem at Peradeniya was common in most state hospitals where suppliers had not been paid for over six months.

A surgeon at the main National Hospital in Colombo said they were short of many vital medicines and patients requiring human insulin were told to bring their own.

“The situation is very grave and we need a disaster management initiative to deal with the worsening situation,” said Ravi Kumudesh, the head of the Medical Laboratory Technologists Association (MLTA).

He said they were unable to carry out diagnostics as most chemicals and solutions needed for their tests were not freely available at state hospitals.

Meanwhile, the government said it allowed suppliers — hit by higher costs — to hike by 30 percent prices of all medical devices, including stents for heart patients.