Hon. Dr. Rajitha Senarathne, Minister of Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine, has requested all cardiologists to use the stents imported by the Ministry of Health to perform surgeries on cardiac patients. These stents will be provided to the patients free of charge. The Minister said that the stents should not be misused. This was said at a meeting held at the Ministry, with the participation of consultant cardiologists from National Hospital, Colombo and Lady Ridgeway Hospital, Borella.

A The Minister instructed to issue a special circular to curb any misuse of stents, to hospitals which perform cardiac surgeries. It was also decided to perform an evaluation with regard to surgeries performed using free stents. 

500 stents were received by the Medical Supplies Division in the first phase and the stents were procured with the recommendations of the consultant cardiologists. The cost of each stent is rupees 75,000 and the Ministry of health has expended over 37 million rupees for this purpose. These have already been dispatched to hospitals. The Medical Supplies Division is expecting a further stock of stents to satisfy the demand for 3 months.  The Hon. Dr. Rajitha Senarathne, Minister of Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine further stated that, the required a stock of stents for 2017 have already been ordered through the State Pharmaceuticals Corporation.