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| Sunday, 1 September 2002 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Shot in the arm for health services by Shanika Sriyananda Liyanage With the extension of government medical facilities to the North and East, four large private hospitals will come up in the North - Eastern provinces shortly. Dr. Amal Harsha de Silva, Director, Private Health Sector Development, said that the private sector in the North and East was very keen on investing in the health sector and assured him of their co-operation with the Ministry of Health in upgrading the existing medical facilities in the two provinces. According to Dr. de Silva, the investors are from the North and Eastern provinces and each province would get two private hospitals. " The Ministry gave the green light for these private hospital projects and they will commence work soon", Dr. de Silva said. He also said that the Minister would encourage the private sector to invest in more health projects, particulary in developing the health care facilities in the districts which have been neglected for several years due to the war. While the private health care institutions are mushrooming in the country, Health Minister P. Dayaratne will soon present the Private Health Care Institution Bill before Parliament in a bid to regulate the activities to minimise irregularities of the private health care services in the country. Under the new bill, the Health Ministry is vested with the authority to monitor the functioning of all private hospitals for which it is essential to have a well trained and experienced medical staff. Private hospitals without qualified staffs will not be allowed to function in future under the new regulations. Dr. de Silva said that there are 160 private hospitals and nursing homes, 800 general practitioners, over 5,000 pharmacies, 400 private laboratories, five private ambulance services and six private nursing homes services functioning in the country. "We have received over 20 complaints against private hospitals and some of them are against leading hospitals in Colombo", Dr. de Silva said |
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