Loopholes of the Sri Lankan healthcare system
Healthcare is a vital component to live a healthy life. Accidents, ailments, injuries are unexpected and during such situations an efficient service is expected. Yet local patients do not have such privileges and a long queue at a government hospital is a common sight. Although health is given priority even at decision-making level and enough and more bills have been tabled and passed, the healthcare system more or less remains untouched. Bearing this in mind, the Daily Mirror Life spoke to a few locals to listen to their thoughts on this issue.
Madhushani
We have to wait in long queues and sometimes the nurses and doctors are careless. This is not how it should work because sometimes they are dealing with a person who is battling his or her life between life and death.
Lalani
The cost of medicine is skyrocketing.
Sasanga
The conditions in some government hospitals are disgusting. Everyone cannot afford to spend huge sums for hospital stays.
Gayan
Nurses and doctors are doing a great service to the country. But this system of implementing bills should be effective or else they will just be documents with no meaning.
Prabath
There are certain units in some hospitals that don’t have specialists. So by any chance if a patient with a severe condition is admitted then either he or she has to be sent abroad or to a private hospital. This is a very unfortunate situation.
Facts
According to WHO statistics, Sri Lanka's expenditure on health (both public and private) was around 3.2% of GDP, or US$89 per head, in 2012. Despite this low expenditure, the health of the population has made great strides, with life expectancy rising from around 60 in 1960 to 74 in 2012, according to the World Bank. The mortality rate for children under five has fallen from 98 per 1,000 live births to 9.6 per 1,000 births in 2013.
According to The Economist, the public health sector has inadequate capacity, limited access to specialist treatment and inconsistent service standards. The availability of complex surgical procedures and specialist care in the public sector is limited to as low as one hospital in Colombo and a few other large hospitals in major cities. The waiting list for this type of care is usually very long. In addition to a disparity in the available care between rural and urban areas, the health infrastructure in the north and east of the country is poor owing to damage caused during the country's civil war.
Expenditure on healthcare has grown steadily. In the period 2005–10 Sri Lanka's total expenditure on health is estimated to have grown at a compound annual rate of around 11%, according to a local government think-tank, the Institute for Policy Studies. Private sector spending grew by 12% a year, while government spending increased by 10% a year in that period. Total spending on healthcare per head has risen from US$49 in 2005 to US$89 in 2012, according to the World Bank.
By Kamanthi Wickramasinghe
Photographs by Kushan Pathiraja
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