"Today Sri Jayawardhanapura is more a paying hospital "

Joseph Michael Perera (UNP-Gampaha District) said: Unless we adopt a national policy with regard to health, we will not be able to meet the anticipations of the Provincial Councils in the health sector and the central concerns on the health of the nation.

Now look the new nursing school you are going to open as an affiliated institution of the Sri Jayawardhanapura hospital. Apprehension has been caused in our minds whether the nursing hospital is part of your plans to privatise the hospitals. Today the Sri Jayawardhanapura hospital is more a paying hospital. When doctors are summoned for consultation, patients are expected to pay them.

The Ragama hospital which is one of the major hospitals in the country needs an accident ward. Its Intensive Care Unit should be expanded. There is a shortage of 150 nurses in the hospital.

You must conduct a survey on the health of the young women employed in various institutions and the Free Trade Zones. It is apparent that these working girls from poor families are underfed and malnourished.

U. L. M. Mohideen (SLMC-Ampara District) said: former Minister of Health of the UNP government made very unfair comments about the Health Minister.

I am going to contradict her. It is during this government that the health sector improved in a manner unparalleled in the history.

We have supplied more drugs to hospitals. Hospitals are better equipped and adequately staffed.

It was King Senarath who settled 2,500 Muslims in Sammanthurai when the British persecuted them.

The Sammanthurai hospital is well equipped and better staffed but there is a dispute between doctors. This dispute is still raging with no solution. Doctors want to do private work rather than being involved in their legitimate activities in the hospital.

Please provide an ambulance boat to transport patients from Muttur hospital to Trincomalee.

Dr. Jayalath Jayawardane (UNP-National List) said: There is a big crisis in the health sector today. Your government does not have a national health policy. Without a national health policy you will not succeed in achieving results by spending money and bringing in supplementary estimates.

Your predecessor had one national health policy and you have another one. You have appointed a Task Force to work out details of your health policy.

Karapitiya hospital is one of the major medical institutions in the South. I have a list of shortcomings of the many divisions of that hospital.

The Anuradhapura hospital should be made a national hospital.

The President has chided me for my visit to Madhu. Officials of the NGOs involved in the transport of medical supplies to the North have told me that detention vehicles transporting drugs under refrigeration lose their quality as a result.

According to reports there are 1.2 million malnourished children in this country. Distribution of Thriposha has been curtailed.

Deputy Minister of Health and Indigenous Medicine S. B. Navinna said: we have already trained and are training over 4,000 nurses. The new nurses school to be affiliated to Sri Jayawardhanapura hospital will supplement that effort.

A. Adaikkalanadan (DPLF-Vanni district) said: There are no permanent doctors in the Mannar hospital. At least five doctors should be appointed on a permanent basis. Similarly at least two doctors should be appointed on a permanent basis to Pesalai hospital. There is no MBBS qualified doctor in the Pesalai hospital.

There is no facilities to test blood in the Mannar hospital. Patients who need such facilities have to travel to Vavuniya. The Mannar hospital also needs a scanner.

Checking of ambulances carrying patients from Mannar to Vavuniya at army checkpoints should be conscious of the dangers to the lives of patients if they are unduly delayed at checkpoints.

P. Selvarasa (TULF-Batticaloa district) said there is no administrative officer in the Batticaloa hospital. The operating theatre in the Batticaloa Teaching Hospital does not have the required equipment. The Batticaloa nurses training school needs hostel facilities. Not only nurses, hundreds of pharmasists are trained there. Please see to their accommodation facilities. While there is an excess of doctors in certain hospitals, districts like Batticaloa are hampered by the lack of medical officers. Cholera has spread from Polonnaruwa to Batticaloa. The hospitals in these areas need drugs to combat cholera.

Mervyn Silva (UNP-Hambantota District) said to minister’s efforts to ameliorate the health services at the risk of his own health has to be appreciated.

We are not opposed to this motion but a greater amount of money will be needed to augment funds to build mental wards and accident wards when we consider the present political atmosphere.

(Interruption by the Deputy Speaker - Please stick to the subject of health. Sections of his speech that were irrelevant to the debate were expunged.)

Jagath Pushpakumara, Deputy Minister of Livestock Development and Rural Industries: The ‘Suwa Udana’ is a systematic treatment scheme that provides patients with services that are out of reach for many in remote hamlets. The patients are checked and treated by medical officers over a period of time. We have initiated many new schemes to improve the health care services. These include the provision of ambulances to hospitals that are in need of it. The Health Minister is devoted to the task of improving health care facilities.

S. Sivathasan (EPDP-Jaffna District) said: The Minister spoke of the necessity of training nurses in the North and East. The main problem of the Jaffna hospital is the lack of staff.

There are 200 nurses vacancies. The 106 applicants selected for training have not yet been given training.

The high qualifications expected of a candidate for a nursing career are not attainable under the situation prevailing in the North.

It is true the candidates for the recent A/L examination received high marks despite the disadvantages they are faced with. Therefore some kind of lowering of the minimum qualification is a must.

We are thankful to the ministers for sending a group of doctors to serve on a rotation basis.

However, I have to mention that the medical supplies to the North do not reach the people in time.

The building of the Komari hospital in Ampara was completed in 1993. But the hospital has still not been opened. It is the duty of the Provincial authorities to see to this.

Parliament on Thursday