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Cabinet
approval for health care budget to be doubled Science and Technology Minister Tissa Vitharana addressing a public seminar and the annual general meeting of the National Movement for the Rights of Patients said more funds and emphasis would be given to preventive health and health education. Professor Vitharana, one of the country's most qualified medical personalities agreed with the NMRP that there was an urgent need for a national health policy and a national drug policy. On overall economic trends, the Minister, who is regarded as a social visionary, said he believed the globalised capitalist market economy was on the brink of collapse and Third World countries like Sri Lanka needed to work out an alternative economic path. Prof. Vitharana assured that in consultation with the Health Minister and the government, he would do whatever possible towards restoring a healthcare service where the welfare of the patient was given priority. He said the much publicised private health industry was providing healthcare to only about 10 percent of the people and that was obviously not the way to provide health for all. The minister said millions of people in rural areas were not getting proper primary or tertiary healthcare. He said that during his regular visits to his electorates covering Ruvanwella and Yatiyanthota, he was obliged to do more medical work than political work since many people came to him for more medical work than political work. Prof. Vitharana said that in one instance, a person came to him with a prescription for nine drugs and lamented he could not afford even three. The professor said that when he checked the patient he found that only three of the drugs were essential. Prof. Carlo Fonseka, former dean of the Medical Faculty and patron of the NMRP, cited figures which showed that about 350 billionaires in the world possessed about 750 billion US dollars which was much more than the resources available to half the world's population -- some three billion people. Dr. K. Balasubramaniam, coordinator of Health Action International Asia Pacific, said the multitude of problems and injustices in the health service could be sorted out if a national health policy and a national drug policy were formulated and implemented. Top nutritionist Dr. Damayanthi Perera highlighted numerous areas where there was public fraud through advertising and aggressive marketing of various milk products. Among others who spoke at the NMRP meeting held at the CSR hall in Colombo were Prof. Tuly de Silva, President of the Pharmaceutical Society in Sri Lanka. The NMRP decided to rename itself as the People's Movement for the Rights of Patients (PMRP) and launch a massive campaign to mobilise public support and civic action to bring about a patient-friendly healthcare service. Activists pointed out that the health service today was being largely controlled by the private health industry led by drug companies and Sri Lanka would face a grave disaster if this situation was not structurally changed. |
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