The Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) has filed cases against 23 private hospitals and medical laboratories across Sri Lanka after islandwide raids uncovered expired medicines, overcharging for tests and other practices that put patients at risk.
Courts have so far imposed fines totalling Rs. 5,798,000 in the concluded cases, the CAA said, with legal action pending against further institutions still under investigation.
The special inspections targeted private hospitals, laboratories and pharmacies. Investigators found expired chemicals being used and stored for diagnostic and laboratory tests, the sale and use of expired medicines in patient care, laboratories charging above the CAA’s approved maximum prices, and expired chemicals stored alongside usable stock without proper segregation. Cases were filed in the relevant Magistrate’s Courts.
One of the starkest examples came in Jaffna, where the Magistrate’s Court fined a private hospital Rs. 3 million for overcharging patients. The CAA has capped the fee for a Full Blood Count (FBC) test at Rs. 400 in private hospitals and laboratories, but the institution in the Kandarmadam area along Palali Road was found charging Rs. 550. After the hospital pleaded guilty, the court imposed the fine and ordered it to publish a notice of the offence in leading newspapers.
The CAA urged patients to be aware of approved medical service charges and to always obtain valid bills or receipts as evidence. It said islandwide raids will continue and asked the public to report overcharging and other violations through its hotline, 1977, during office hours.
