Hot on the heels of a government ban on several Indian suppliers of pharmaceutical products for supplying low quality drugs, a rubber band had been found in a bottle of cloxacillin meant for a patient warded at the Anuradhapura Teaching Hospital, a hospital spokesman told The Island.

T. B. Wijekoon, director of the hospital said that the Health Ministry had been informed of this.

The Health Ministry is under heavy fire over the import of low quality drugs, particularly from India.

Health Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva has vowed to rectify shortcomings and take all possible measures to ensure the supply of good quality medicine to government hospitals.