The government is working to ramp up public spending on health care in order to ensure continued provision of high-quality care throughout the state-run system, to implement new technologies across the sector and to prepare for a potential influx of medical tourists.
In an unprecedented move towards Sri Lanka Health sector revolution the Government is to re introduce non-paying wards in private hospitals, President Ranil Wickremesinghe disclosed
He said that the Government is looking at the possibility of introducing paying wards in Government hospitals and non-paying wards in private hospitals.
It will take the tab for the treatment made in non-paying wards in private hospitals The President also said that a separate unit would be established to send military personnel overseas to help in times of health disasters.
He made these observations while addressing the inauguration ceremony of the 6th annual academic sessions of the Sri Lanka College of Military Medicine (SLCOMM) held under the theme ‘Resilience of Military Medicine In the Times of Crisis’ at the Eagles Lagoon in Katunayake.
“I’m looking at the possibility of using our military medical personnel to send abroad when the people are faced with health disasters.
Health disasters take place more often than natural disasters and I would discuss this matter with the military to establish a unit in this regard. So that’s a new chapter for military medicine,” the President said.
The President also said that under the Indian credit line the Government is to get more medicine to address the shortage during the crisis.
He added that the Government is working on making more foreign exchange available to the medical sector.
The President further said that discussions are ongoing with the Ministry of Health to upgrade the Medical Research Institute (MRI) into one of the best medical research laboratories in the region.
Sri Lanka’s Constitution. Its health care system delivers what is widely recognized as some of the highest-quality care in South Asia, despite spending considerably less than most other countries.
The state-run public health system provides efficient, comprehensive and free medical services of all kinds.
Currently, around 95% of inpatient care and 50% of outpatient care is provided by the public system, while the private sector accounts for the remaining 5% and 50%, respectively, according to official data.
“Sri Lanka’s health system is unusual, in that it is a mixed market, like Hong Kong or Malaysia,” the Colombo-based Institute for Health Policy (IHP) revealed, adding that the system is extremely efficient, truly low cost and widely used by almost all segments of society.”
Nonetheless, Sri Lanka faces several challenges when it comes to maintaining cheap, high-quality health care.
Like many other countries around the world, the medical system has seen a shift in focus from infectious diseases, which have been all but eradicated, to non-communicable diseases (NCDs), such as cancer and heart disease.
“The burden of keeping the population healthy falls to the health sector,” the World Health Organisation (WHO) said. “But NCDs are the result of much larger cultural issues, which require behavioural and societal change across the country.”
