Healthcare services to be upgraded within next five years – Dr. Palitha Mahipala
Health Secretary Dr. Palitha Mahipala recently said that the Health Ministry has decided to upgrade country’s primary healthcare services within next five years with the financial assistance of the World Bank.
The total estimated cost of the project is Rs 70 billion and the World Bank plans to provide the total cost as Rs. 14 billion per a year.
The Secretary further said that it has also been decided to establish five cardiac catheterisation units covering the entire island with the assistance of the JAICA.
The decision has been reached after considering the fact that the deaths caused by non-communicable diseases, four out of ten people, or five are under 50-60 years of age.
He emphasised this while participating as the chief guest at an award ceremony which was organised to evaluate the service of the hospital staff after a special observation tour conducted at Rikilagaskada Base Hospital.
Speaking further, the Health Secretary said that currently, one in five people are over 60 years old, and by 2030, one in four people will be over 60 years old.
He pointed out that treatment for their unique health problems is also being done, 60,000 people suffer from stroke in this country every year, 4,000 of them die, and 56,000 of them are left with various ailments. He said that 6,000 people die from accidents and more than 100,000 people get disabled, and efforts are being made to strengthen the necessary rehabilitation services.
He said that 89 percent of the deaths in this country are caused by non-communicable diseases; 41 million people die worldwide every year due to non communicable diseases, of which 17.2 million people die due to heart diseases.
He pointed out that about 20, 000 people die due to smoking in our country and 8 million people die in the world. To reduce this, he said that necessary reforms should be made in the primary health service to educate the people, recognise and identify disease conditions.
The secretary further said that no matter how many reforms we make in the health service, if the kindness, affection and quality treatment is not provided to the patient, the confidence in the healthcare system will decrease.
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