(Lanka-e-News -10.July.2011, 6.30PM) Recently , it was exposed that there are six Hospitals in the North East which merit a place in the Guinness book of records , not for excellence but for Govt.’s monumental neglect of those Hospitals. Six Hospitals in North East are without doctors , and there is only one doctor for 12 Hospitals in the North East ! . All the work of these Hospitals is run by this single doctor .None other than the North central province health Minister Peshala Jayaratne himself made this startling revelation.The Minister made this disclosure at a recent national reforms program held at the Anuradhapura district health office aimed at enlisting the support of the people towards the program.
The provincial council Minister speaking further said , this acute dearth of doctors and nursing staff had in addition , seriously impaired the performance of duties at the Gramiya (village) hospitals. The Minister pointed out that doctors are reluctant to come to village hospitals because of lack of facilities to them including official abode. Because the monthly rental in those areas is about Rs. 6000-7000 rupees , doctors are unable to secure suitable abodes when they come to serve there , he added.
The Minister also lamented that because the replenishments and medical supplies from the Central Govt. are wanting, the health service is compelled to provide a poor medical service.
Minister Jayaratne bemoaned that after a survey conducted by him , it has been realized that in the North East region , owing to this inadequate medical service , 65 % of the patients there are seeking private medical services paying money. The Minister also expressed that following his survey ,a discovery was made of a very peculiar pathetic plight to which the patients are driven into , where they have to go to the same doctor who is serving in the Govt. hospital and seek attention via his private practice after payment because the Govt. Hospitals haven’t facilities to serve them , and the waste of time the patients are subjected to at Govt.
hospitals.
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UK Defence Minister accuses Labour regime for Sri Lanka’s war
The visiting British Defence Secretary Dr Liam Fox, while delivering the Lakshman Kadirgamar Memorial Lecture in Colombo on Saturday, accused the previous Labour government of UK for neglecting a political process he had worked out in 1997 and thus contributing to war in the island. “The incoming Labour government showed little interest in Sri Lanka or in taking forward the political process we had begun. The agreement subsequently withered on the vine, to my very great sadness, and the cycle of violence brought more misery, more violence and more death,” he said. Dr. Fox, viewed as one of the ‘friends’ the Rajapaksa regime is harping on, pinned his hopes now on the LLRC report expected in November and made only a passing remark on the need of an inclusive political solution.
Dr. Liam Fox
But he made a special reference to Sri Lanka’s ‘geography’ in the struggle for maritime security.
“Sri Lanka is located in a pivotal position in the Indian Ocean with major international shipping routes between the Far East and the Gulf within 25 miles of your coast.
“In Trincomalee, Sri Lanka has a formidable strategic asset in this struggle that has yet to be fully realised.
“So there is significant potential, for Sri Lanka to play a greater role, in issues such as counter piracy,” Fox said in his address. Full story >>
