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STORY: This cancer hospital on the outskirts of Colombo is on the frontline of Sri Lanka's medicine shortage.

And doctors say the lack of necessary drugs could soon cause deaths, as they are forced to postpone life-saving procedures.

Sri Lanka imports more than 80% of its medical supplies.

But with foreign currency reserves running out because of the country's economic crisis, essential medications are disappearing from shelves.

At the 950-bed Apeksha cancer hospital, doctor Roshan Amaratunga says major surgeries have been cancelled at short notice.

"Because as a government hospital, we depend on the government supplies... Even at the present, situation is endangering to their (cancer patients) lives. So I can't make anymore comments, it's, death penalty will be there."

According to a government official producing medical supplies about 180 essential items are running out, with Sri Lanka's healthcare system close to collapse.

Shortages include including injections for dialysis patients, medicine for transplant patients, and certain cancer drugs.

India and Japan are helping to procure supplies, but it could take months for them to arrive.

Binuli Bimsara's 4-year-old child is receiving Leukaemia treatment at Apeksha hospital.

"Now we are really scared. Previously, we at least had some hope because we had the medication but now we are living under tremendous fear. We are really helpless, our future is really dark when we hear about a shortage of medicines. We don't have money to take our child abroad for treatment either."

Sri Lanka is grappling with its most devastating economic crisis since independence in 1948.

It's been caused by a combination of the impacts of COVID-19 on its tourism-reliant economy, rising oil prices, populist tax cuts and a ban on the import of chemical fertilizers, which has devastated the country's agricultural sector.