Sri Lanka’s doctors sound the alarm as a new Health Ministry cabinet paper opens government hospitals to private business, raising fears of higher costs, deeper inequality, and the slow erosion of free healthcare.
The Alliance of Doctors’ Trade Unions for Medical and Civil Rights has raised serious concerns over a new cabinet paper presented by the Ministry of Health that proposes allowing private sector services within government hospitals. According to the doctors’ alliance, this move threatens the very foundation of Sri Lanka’s free healthcare system.
The alliance’s chairman, Specialist Dr. Chamal Sanjeewa, says the proposal reflects a deeper failure by the government to strengthen the efficiency of the public hospital system. He argues that instead of fixing long standing administrative and financial weaknesses, the authorities are attempting to outsource essential services to private providers, shifting the burden onto patients.
Dr. Sanjeewa points out that the cabinet paper itself is an indirect admission by the current Health Minister that the existing system is struggling. He warns that bringing private companies into government hospitals could increase healthcare costs, even though public sector service delivery remains the most affordable option for the state and the public.
Health economics experts, he notes, have consistently shown that private sector involvement significantly raises operational costs. Making such a policy decision without consulting subject experts or conducting a proper technical study, he says, is both irresponsible and dangerous for a country that relies heavily on universal free healthcare.
The doctors’ alliance also highlights a series of unresolved crises within the health sector. These include the ongoing shortage of essential medicines, the collapse of radiological services such as CT and MRI scans, long surgical waiting lists, and disruptions to laboratory testing in major hospitals including the National Hospital. Added to this is the growing exodus of doctors and other health professionals leaving the country.
Dr. Sanjeewa further criticizes the continued retention of officials who, he says, are responsible for the current breakdown of the health system. He stresses that it is troubling the President has yet to address this issue.
The Alliance of Doctors’ Trade Unions for Medical and Civil Rights is now urging the President to immediately suspend the cabinet paper and appoint a technical committee to conduct a formal, transparent evaluation before any irreversible damage is done to Sri Lanka’s free healthcare model.
