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Keeping doctors and public informed on matters of life-and-death issues
Dr. Padma Gunaratne
They treated patients including those affected by COVID-19 throughout the difficult year of 2021.
Even amidst these hardships, the Sri Lanka Medical Association (SLMA) under the guidance of President Dr. Padma Gunaratne and her council also went that extra mile to keep their doctors and the public informed on many matters of life-and-death issues, which otherwise would be put on the backburner.
For it is the national professional medical association which brings together medical practitioners of all grades and all branches of medicine and has a proud history of being the oldest professional medical association in Asia and Australasia, dating back to 1887.
It was in late December that the SLMA presented to Health Secretary Dr. Sanjeewa Munasinghe four publications that they had come up with during the year.
They were:
n ‘Practice guidelines in the end-of-life care’ & ‘Palliative Care Manual for Healthcare Professionals in Sri Lanka’ (Second Edition) by the SLMA Palliative & End-of-Life Care Task Force
n ‘Guide to Stroke Rehabilitation’ by the SLMA Expert Committee on Medical Rehabilitation
n ‘SLMA Guidelines and Information on Vaccines 7th Edition’ by the SLMA Expert Committee on Communicable Diseases
Referring to end-of-life and palliative care, Dr. Udayangani Ramadasa said that with the advancement of science and technology, people live longer, sometimes suffering with life-limiting illnesses, which have a huge impact on healthcare. When a cure is not possible, relief from suffering is the cardinal goal in medicine and it is the philosophy of palliative medicine.
2 of the publications
“Palliative care is holistic care. It assesses the physical, social, psychological and spiritual aspects of suffering of patients as well as their caregivers. It improves the quality of the remaining life duration and gives a support system for the patient to live as actively as possible until he/she dies. It addresses the needs of caregivers during the course of the patient’s illness and helps them to cope after the death of their loved one,” she said, adding that palliative medicine is an emerging speciality in Sri Lanka and the manual was developed to guide healthcare professionals.
It is a universal truth that we all die one day but there should be dignified death. It is to address this humane issue that ‘Practice guidelines in the end-of-life care’ was prepared by a multidisciplinary group of professionals with respect for ethical principles and cultural values, without breaching the law, Dr. Ramadasa added.
With regard to the ‘Guide to Stroke Rehabilitation’, Dr. Padma Gunaratne said that it is for all categories of health professionals involved in the rehabilitation of stroke patients.
She stressed that stroke care comes under a multi-disciplinary team of doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, counsellors and those able to advise on assistance which may be accessed from the Department of Social Services.
Meanwhile, on the ‘Guidelines and Information on Vaccines’, Dr. Lucian Jayasuriya said that the popularity of the first edition of 2001, led to revisions and expanded editions almost every three years.
The 7th edition has 37 chapters by 29 experts of which five chapters are new and the others are revisions.
“The edition provides up-to-date information on all vaccines available in Sri Lanka,” added Dr. Jayasuriya.
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