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Immediate infusion of Rs 500m to resuscitate crisis-hit Negombo Hospital
View(s):Sri Lanka’s Health Ministry has pledged an immediate Rs. 500 million to the crisis-hit Negombo General Hospital, where patients were evacuated two weeks ago after its seven-storey building was deemed unsafe. The funds were to build temporary facilities and also for repairs.
While the funding was promised by Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne, at a meeting on Thursday with administrators, consultant doctors and other staff at the hospital itself, the Sunday Times learns that the very next day Rs. 100 million was released to launch construction work on these temporary steel structures. The structures, to accommodate the patients comfortably, are to be put up on bare land at the rear of the hospital.
The crisis was first highlighted by the Sunday Times in a story headlined, ‘Emergency evacuation of Negombo Hospital’s patients as building deemed unsafe’ on May 31, followed up with an on-the-spot report, ‘All’s not well at the Negombo Hospital’ on June 7.
Thursday’s allocation to the Negombo Hospital bypasses procedures of going through the Western Provincial Council, under whose mandate it comes, as this is a crisis situation, a source told the Sunday Times.
Minister Senaratne, however, had been of the view that getting the hospital under the purview of the central Government’s Health Ministry would go against the policies of devolution. While Rs. 200 million would be utilised to put up structures to meet the immediate needs, the balance Rs 300 million would be channelled to repair the main building, sources said. An interim assessment on the condition of the main building – which said the building was dangerous for occupation — had been submitted by the Department of Civil Engineering of the University of Moratuwa and the final report is due on June 27, it is learnt.
The University’s Senior Professor and Engineer, Thishan Jayasinghe, who will supervise the installation of the temporary steel structures and also repairs to the main building, was commended by hospital sources for going beyond the call of duty and acting promptly in an emergency.
In the two weeks following the evacuation of all the wards, the main operating theatre and the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the seven-storey building — the very hub of the Negombo Hospital — no routine surgeries have been performed, while even emergency surgeries have been limited. Many casualties have been transferred, after resuscitation, to other hospitals, the Sunday Times found during its visit on June 5.
The hospital was without an ICU and many clinics were not functioning due to lack of space and massive overcrowding. The in-house patients evacuated from the main building were accommodated in other smaller buildings on the premises, which is not ideal.
At Thursday’s meeting, Minister Senaratne who was accompanied by the Director-General of Health Services, Dr. Palitha Mahipala, was shown the full picture of the disaster. He was made aware how the Outpatients Department was crammed into a small space, with the number being treated there reducing by half; how the situation was unsatisfactory with an influenza epidemic as well as a conjunctivitis epidemic which are highly contagious, raging; how X-rays were not possible and only a skeletal laboratory was functioning; and how some wards had been closed and others operating at half their capacity.
Earlier, as the crisis grew, all trade unions in the hospital held joint talks to discuss options, with one being the closure of the hospital until a solution could be found, it is understood. The hospital committee and civil and religious organizations too had expressed serious concerns over the situation.
However, now with the infusion of funding and a clear plan in place, the problem seems to be getting solved to a large extent, sources added.
- Kumudini Hettiarachchi