Lack of funds hits A'pura Teaching Hospital

The Anuradhapura Teaching Hospital is currently facing severe shortages of medical equipment, due to lack of sufficient funds. Hospital Director Dr. W. Atapattu told the Sunday Observer that although many of the medical items required by the hospital had been ordered from last year, the hospital was still awaiting the funds to pay for them. "The problem is that the money allocated by the budget does not reach us in time. So till such time we have no means of purchasing them", he said.He said the hospital also lacked sufficient nursing staff to cater to the large number of patients which had grown since the hospital became a Teaching Hospital.

"We now have 800 nurses. But we need another 200 or more", he said.

Lack of sufficient quarters for the doctors and nurses who now occupy dilapidated buildings that hadn't been repaired for several years, has added to the long list of woes of this premier hospital in the North Central Province, which is visited by more than 2000 outdoor patients daily attending various clinics and houses 1,850 in-patients.Dr. Atapattu said shortages of certain medicines also occurred frequently in the hospital.

Asked if there was a shortage of dialysis machines since the NCP had a high incidence of kidney patients requiring dialysis, he said there were 20 such machines at present, but any additions would be welcome.