Reaching out to the needy

high quality healthcare in IDP camps:

by Nadira GUNATILLEKE

Receiving ‘Triposha’

Pregnant mothers at the IDP camp

Midwives attend to the medical requirements of the expectant mothers.

What comes to you first when you are reaching somewhere or getting closer to something? Is it smell, sound or view ? No matter what comes first, I judge something by the smell! It is the smell which catches my full attention first. Most of the times my judgements are correct. I did not get a bad smell at all during my entire trip!

Here I am not talking about perfumes, garbage, food or animals. It is about Menik Farm where a large number of people are living in welfare villages after the Sri Lankan Armed Forces rescued them from the LTTE. It is all about those welfare villages, IDPs and the health facilities they enjoy. This information is for the ordinary people who rarely get a chance to visit these villages. Certain media report various things with different objectives. But anybody can get the real picture by visiting those camps and studying the facilities enjoyed by both the IDPs and health staff. The most important fact is the garbage disposal system of those camps which is very methodical.

The smiling face of the Chief Zonal Coordinator, Dr. Noel Wijesekara is the best example for the facilities enjoyed by the health staff serving the IDPs in welfare villages. He works in a building where a toilet with modern fittings, a computer, telephone, and other facilities are available. He was very busy but did not look tired or frustrated. According to him, the health staff work hard to ensure that IDPs get the best care and there are even `on call' doctors serving at these welfare villages at night. There are ambulances to transport patients.

Under the direction of Healthcare and Nutrition Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva, Healthcare and Nutrition Ministry Secretary Dr.Athula Kahandaliyanage supervises all the health related activities in IDP camps in Cheddikulam. The Director General of Health Services is in charge of overall implementation of activities planned to provide essential health care facilities to IDPs. The National Level Steering Committee which comprises college presidents, heads of all divisions within the ministry and other stakeholders coordinates and monitors health issues related to IDPs.

The Disaster Preparedness and Response Unit at the Ministry of Health functions 24 hours and supports the coordination centre to ensure that activities are implemented efficiently.

Health services are available in welfare villages in different ways. They are curative services, referral hospitals (OPD services, inward care, special program clinics, mobile lab facilities, dental services, ETU units and ORT Centres), peripheral health centres (OPD services, ER, transfer facilities). Health institutions are linked by the ambulance services within the camps and outside the units. Preventive services are available in the sectors of ANC, FP clinics, feeding programs, EPI program, Entomology teams, flies and mosquito control and water and sanitation.

All the health staff attached to welfare villages should report to the Health Coordination Centre daily by 8.00 am. They have been provided with a special pass to enter the zones by the centre. The staff are assigned to work till 12 noon and return to the centre for lunch. The health staff have been provided with freshly cooked lunch packets and mineral water bottles.

Health staff are assigned to work at least for a duration of one week. It was made mandatory that no one leaves the respective duty station without a replacement.

According to the Coordinator of Disaster Preparedness Response Unit, Dr. Esara Kottegoda, the present death rate of the welfare villages set up for the IDPs is 2 to 5 deaths per day and according to the International standards it could be between 6 to 12 deaths per day. It becomes an issue only when it exceeds 12 deaths per day. At the moment there are 75 doctors (including 10 specialist doctors) and 90 nurses serving in the welfare villages. Another 100 newly recruited doctors and 200 nurses are to be posted to serve in the welfare villages from September 15.

Dr. Kottegoda said that 372 health workers such as PHIs, PHNs and MOHs serve at the welfare villages at the moment and there are six referral centres and 18 primary health care centres also functioning. Communicable diseases such as chickenpox, hepatitis and typhoid have gone down drastically in the welfare camps and IDP care and all the drugs are freely available for the IDPs.

Cheddikulam hospital will be taken over by the Government as soon as the Cabinet approval is received for the Cabinet memorandum. Cheddikulam hospital has already been developed as a base hospital with the assistance of the Italian and German Governments. Donor agencies such as WHO, WB and UNICEF continue to assist IDP healthcare, he added.

One Somalian doctor serving in the welfare villages who did not wish to reveal his identity said that the situation in Sri Lankan IDP welfare villages is far better than in Somalia. He has been serving in Menik Farm for a period of two months.

Unfortunately such foreign professionals do not express their views to the media due to certain restrictions imposed on them by their organisations and the media do not publicize views expressed by such foreign professionals when they do. The truth is out there and it reaches the public in one way or another.