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A rural hospital is the key element and the primary care centre in
our health system. It is the place where thousands of villagers receive
medicine and are being followed up for various ailments.
After the era of "veda Mahattayas" and "veda gedara", rural hospitals
continue the noble task of serving the poor man of the distant village,
who cannot afford to travel to distant high tech hospitals.
The trend of the villagers to use and abuse alcohol in almost every
village gathering has increased recently, thanks to the availability of
locally brewed kassippu. Statistics say that Sri Lanka is a leading
country when it comes to alcohol consumption. One does not need
statistics to prove a point if he works in a rural hospital, and I am
one of those unfortunate workers to experience this mishap.
Why people rely on alcohol as their daily eye opening beverage is a
question that needs to be probed into. The problem arises when these
alcohol abusers use rural hospitals as their ultimate resting place.
They receive free food, lodging, free medicine no matter what state they
are in. Alcohol abusers also harass the nurses, doctors, the attendants
and disturb the other inward patients.
The sad side of this story is that, after repeated incidents, an
alcoholic abusing a hospital worker has become a normal thing, a thing
that we should expect from the locals, although none of the health
workers have been given training in self defence!
The government and the Health Ministry might have realised the
gravity of the situation as a large proportion of health expenditure, is
used for the treatment of end stage alcoholics and accidents faced by
people under the influence of alcohol.
At rural hospitals where the monthly allocation of medicine such as
saline or glucose solution, is limited to fifty to sixty bottles, one
does fall into trouble when writing down the treatment of alcoholics and
other patients.
Discouraging alcohol abusers from unnecessarily getting admitted to a
rural hospital is a solution to this problem. This might also indirectly
lead to a reduction in alcohol use, as the word goes round about hostile
welcome at hospitals for alcoholics.
If a scheme is developed where after being diagnosed as under the
influence of alcohol, a person is imposed a fine through the local
police station, for his medical expenses, a considerable amount of
revenue could be gathered by the State.
The medico-legal form currently filled by the medical officers can be
used for this purpose. The current method of informing the local police
station, of inward patients, is a practical way to collect the fines.
Dr. Himantha Atukorale
I thank Al-Haj M. S. A. Rahim, retired Chief Inspector of Police for
his letter on the above subject, in the Sunday Observer of August 19,
exposing the humiliation the sweep winners have to undergo, when they
appear before a panel of judges.
The ladies and gentlemen who conduct the draw ask several questions
from the winners, about them and their family matters, thus causing them
much embarrassment.
It is indeed a very serious matter to question them about their
family matters as they would be exposed to criminal elements, thereby.
The criminal elements, after getting all the information about the
winners, visit their houses with firearms and extort large sums of
money, threatening them with bodily harm or even murder, if they do not
comply with their demand.
Perhaps the officials of the Lotteries Board may not be aware of this
sad situation.
Therefore I write this letter in the interest of the sweep winners as
well as the Lotteries' Board.
D. G. Ratnayake
Reference the article by S. M. Wickremasekera on the above in the
Sunday Observer of August 26, 2007, I highly appreciate and welcome the
good suggestion. It's high time that the authorities concerned take
action on this issue.
It is very much regrettable to note that the Labour Department and
the EPF section is aware of the defaulters, and the Ministry too, and
what have they done for so many years? The authorities concerned have
encouraged the defaulters to make more money with the said 20 per cent
and 50 per cent surcharge with a good interest return, whereas the poor
employees are made to suffer for the EPF claim for years.
I appeal to the Ministry concerned to take legal action and put an
end to suffering of the poor claimant.The EPF Act needs amendments. This
is over to you, the relevant Ministry please.
Mohamed Razeek.
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