Financial Times - After e-channelling, new medical directory listing all doctors

The hassle of channelling a doctor is a common occurrence in Sri Lanka. It is a drawn out procedure that begins with finding a specialist with good credentials and reputation.

Then you need to find out where he works and where his private practice is along with the phone numbers to these places, figure out when and at what time the doctor works and find out how much he charges.

Anyone who has gone through this ordeal would have wished for a compilation of all this information.

This is exactly what C.D. Wanasundera of Clans Associates (Pvt) Ltd., offers in the Directory of Health Facilities Sri Lanka 2006 - Colombo District, which will be released by the end of June. “I observed a deficiency in this area which caused a lot of commotion and I wanted to provide a solution for it,” said Mr Wanasundera explaining why he stepped into this unique but useful exercise.

The medical directory will cover a vast spectrum of information on health services in Colombo, starting from health administration, to hospitals and doctors, to supplies and appliances. The directory will contain details on communication (addresses, phone numbers, etc), management, medical staff, specialists, services, accommodation, payment and visiting hours. It will also carry information on Ayurvedic practitioners and hospitals.

“The advantage of this directory will be that it will only contain authentic information. For example, I have not included any pharmacies that are unregistered,” he said adding that one obstacle he faced was the difficulty in giving the specific times, that doctors will be working at private hospitals due to their irregular hours.

The directory will be released in English and a Sinhala edition will soon follow. Then it will be expanded to other districts. Mr Wanasundera has received the support of the Ministry of Health, the Sri Lanka Medical Council and the Sri Lanka Medical Association in this endeavour. People’s Bank and Sri Lanka Pharmaceuticals Corporation (SPC) are among the sponsors.

This is the second attempt at compiling a medical directory in Sri Lanka. The first was also by Mr Wanasundera who published one in 1987. But since then, there has been a void in this area and he hopes that the Directory of Health Facilities-2006 will fill this 20-year gap.