Sri Lanka’s free healthcare system, once praised globally, is now on the brink of collapse as doctors warn of shortages, crumbling infrastructure and mass staff exodus unless an urgent revival plan is implemented.
Press Release
The need to announce a sustainable program to protect the collapsing hospital system and secure free healthcare.
Free healthcare plays a leading role in strengthening the lives of the people and the workforce of this country and in creating a healthy nation and future.
As a lower-middle-income country, Sri Lanka has been praised by the World Health Organization for providing healthcare services to the people that are second to none compared to high-income developed countries. The healthcare staff, led by doctors, play a crucial role in this.
However, due to the failure to accurately identify the problems existing in the hospital system and provide uniform solutions to those problems, the country’s hospital system and patient care services are at risk of collapse.
Even after almost eight decades of independence, people still struggle to access free health services.
The hospital system was most affected by the economic and political instability in Sri Lanka. However, the health staff, including specialists and doctors, are making enormous sacrifices to maintain quality and continuous patient care services.
The true nature of the deep crisis is still hidden due to the sacrifices of the health staff, led by doctors.
Our membership continues to inform us that if we fail to provide immediate solutions to this crisis, which has arisen due to a number of problems such as shortage of human resources, shortage of medicines, lack of basic facilities, and breakdown of security in the hospital system, the hospital system will soon collapse.
Protecting the lives of the people in the state is an indispensable responsibility of any government. Therefore, even in times of crisis, free healthcare should be given priority to protect the right to life of the people.
In this regard, implementing a sustainable plan with a short-term and long-term program aimed at solving the problems of the hospital system and free healthcare has become a strong need of the hour.
Therefore, in determining future economic and development strategies, securing healthcare services and maintaining quality should be a central factor.
The crisis situation faced by the hospital system was discussed at length at the emergency central committee meeting of the Government Medical Officers’ Association, and a proposal for an action plan to revive free healthcare was also discussed.
- Implement a sustainable program with a time frame to ensure economic stability and create a satisfying professional environment, with the aim of encouraging specialist doctors and doctors to remain in the country.
- Implement a robust program with short-term and long-term strategies to sustainably address the shortage of medicines and equipment in the hospital system and maintain the quality and continuity of the medicine supply process.
- Implement new strategies to ensure the safety of health personnel in the hospital system, introduce necessary new legal provisions and establish action plans specific to health institutions.
- Analyze the existing service needs and future service expansions in the health system, project the number of approved doctors in the health system and update the number of approved doctors accordingly as soon as possible.
- Improve the quality of patient care by expanding the educational, postgraduate and training opportunities of health personnel, including doctors.
- In providing patient care services in the hospital system, create a good professional environment by establishing the necessary basic infrastructure facilities, including official residences and transportation facilities, for the health staff, including doctors, in a standardized manner.
- Improve the standard and quality of infrastructure facilities and sanitation facilities provided to patients in the hospital system.
- Formulate a methodology with a feasibility study to strengthen primary health care and through this, bring health services closer to the people.
Accordingly, the government should take immediate steps to identify the real problems, including the human resource crisis in the free health service, and implement a sustainable program in the short and long term. We emphasize that the Government Medical Officers’ Association is ready to make the necessary interventions with the aim of protecting the health system and people’s lives by bringing all parties together based on our above proposal.
Dr. Prabath Sugathadasa,
Secretary
