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Jayawardenepura Hospital fleecing them, patients complain
By Nilika Kasturisinghe
Patients are complaining that they are being charged excessively by the Sri Jayewardenepura Hospital which is increasing charges on its services day by day.
A directive issued last week at the hospital instructed all ward clerks and cashiers to revise radiology charges as set out by it.

These revisions in fact amounted to doubling and tripling of charges and, in some instances, even to quadrupling of charges. A urethrogram which used to cost Rs. 450, now costs Rs. 2,200, while an MCU (a test done to see the functioning of the bladder in children) which cost Rs. 500 now costs Rs. 2,200, and an HSG (an investigation done to ascertain female infertility) which cost Rs. 600 now costs Rs. 1980.

These are just a few in a long list of increases in charges made by the administration of the Sri Jayewardenepura Hospital. Despite the fact that Sri Lanka has always taken pride in a free health care system, and been held up as a model to other Asian countries the Government appears to be turning a blind eye to how the public is being fleeced by a system which is day by day prospering on their ill health.

While the basic charge of Rs. 100 per day has gone up to Rs. 250, even a family member staying by the patient is charged Rs. 50. The payment for entering the emergency department is Rs. 500.

Despite the hospital not being a private hospital, patients are required to pay Rs. 1000 per day for utilizing the Intensive Care Unit. The hospital charges Rs. 60 for the physiotherapist to visit a ward, even for two or three minutes.

A patient coming in for dialysis has to pay Rs. 3,500 per day. The list is endless.
While prices for most of the services are rapidly rising, the hospital's occupancy has dropped to 55 or 60 percent, with patients charging that the hospital no longer functions in the best interests of patients.

"We do not come to hospital out of choice, it is out of need," Somalatha explained. Her 83-year-old mother had spent several days in the hospital, and the expenses had been unbearable.

The 17-year-old hospital, a gift from Japan donated through JAICA, was established with a view to treating the masses of this country. The Japanese Government did not want it to become a private hospital, but now it has begun charging money at every turn, relatives of patients lamented.

The entire staff at SJP is approximately 1,400 including among it 20 consultants and over 100 junior doctors. The staff is given all the benefits - breakfast, lunch, dinner, tea, uniforms, socks and shoes, while their family members get free treatment. The Chairman, Director and Deputy Director get official vehicles at hospital expense.
Meanwhile, the previous practice of the hospital administrators meeting doctors has stopped. There used to be meetings every month but this practice stopped about a year ago.

Patients alleged that the Chairman who spends only a few hours in the hospital has an air-conditioned room, which he has refurbished. He has a car and chauffeur and is paid approximately Rs. 45,000 per month.

Another seven storey building has been put up and is yet to be opened. Now they are trying to get money from the poor people who come to the hospital in pain and distress to cover its cost, relatives of patients said.

Health Minister P. Dayaratne however, defended the increased fees saying "the hospital is not making a profit". An operation which cost Rs. 150,000 has gone up to Rs. 160,000. The increase is Rs. 10,000, the minister said adding that this was justifiable.

"It is much less than a private hospital," he said adding that though the Japanese Government which donated the hospital did not wish it to be a private hospital it did not require services to be given free. The minister said he was due to meet a group of consultants to discuss this issue.

Protests against creation of revenue services authority
By Chandani Kirinde
Customs officials have vowed to keep up their protests against the creation of a state revenue services (SRS) authority until the government shelves its plans to create such a body.

Several hundred Customs officials held a picketing campaign protesting against this and several others issues on Wednesday in front of their office in Fort. Their counterparts from the Excise Department as well as the Inland Revenue Department too protested in front of their respective offices against the creation of the authority, which they say, will undermine their work.

The Customs officials also protested against the tax amnesty that the government granted recently stating that the department would lose billions of rupees as a result. They say they were left in the dark about the passage of the amnesty bill.
Members of eighteen trade unions of the three departments also took part in the protests.

The unions are against the creation of the SRS authority, which they say would take away government control over these all-important revenue-collecting bodies.
They are seeking assurances that the control of this Department will lie with the central government and that in the guise of restructuring them, no staff will be retrenched.

The trade unions said that despite assurances from the government in September last year that no such authority would be created, a draft Bill to this effect had already been prepared. They said they would keep up the protests till the proposal to create a revenue service authority is shelved.

Meanwhile, a senior Customs official said the tax amnesty had also angered many in the Customs Department. "We investigate and prosecute offenders but when governments come into power, they end up pardoning them. This is very demoralizing," the official said speaking on condition of anonymity.

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