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Pledge to create sustainable healthcare for every Lankan
View(s):With a strong commitment to change for the better, the 131st President of the Sri Lanka Medical Association (SLMA), Dr. Surantha Perera pledged to foster a just, equitable and resilient healthcare system, while calling on all stakeholders to join hands in creating a sustainable health sector that serves every Sri Lankan.
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- Dr. Surantha Perera (left) with Immediate Past President Dr. Ananda Wijewickrama
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- Dr. Surantha Perera hands over a copy of the ‘SLMA 2025 Road Map’ to health official Dr. Lakshmi Somatunge, while SLMA’s Immediate Past President Dr. Ananda Wijewickrama looks on
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- Dr. Surantha Perera delivering the Presidential address
“Let us act now for the betterment of our nation and the good of all Sri Lankans,” said Dr. Perera on January 12, giving the SLMA’s 2025 vision as centring on the theme ‘Health Equity Across the Life Course: Resilient Pathways, Empowered Lives’.
Explaining that the theme encapsulates a commitment to equitable healthcare, resilience and patient empowerment at every life stage, he said that ‘health equity’ would encompass upholding health as a fundamental right, ensuring that all individuals can reach their highest potential; ‘resilient pathways’ would strengthen healthcare systems and Universal Health Coverage (UHC) through evidence-based policy reforms; and ‘empowering lives’ would help foster patient-centred care and community resilience.
His ‘strategic’ focus areas would be ‘Childhood: Providing a head start through nurturing cognitive, emotional and social development’; ‘Adolescence: Promoting sexual health and mental well-being to support resilience’; and ‘Adulthood and Elderly Care: Focusing on preventive care and promoting lifelong wellness’.
This is while the cross-cutting initiatives are climate resilience in healthcare, including the launch of Climate-Smart Green Hospitals; the prevention of road traffic accidents and neglected tropical diseases; and a holistic life-course approach addressing health disparities.
While resilient pathways represent strategic approaches to strengthening healthcare systems and achieving UHC, he said that these include identifying policy gaps, implementing evidence-based solutions and enhancing primary healthcare to address the diverse needs of individuals across the life course.
Dr. Perera went onto elaborate that empowered lives emphasise patient-centred care and foster community resilience by equipping individuals and communities with the knowledge, resources and access needed to lead healthier lives and the life course approach studies how exposures and experiences throughout life, especially early on, affect health outcomes, including the risk of chronic diseases. It looks at influences from prenatal development and even across generations. This field combines knowledge from multiple disciplines, such as epidemiology, sociology, psychology and biomedical sciences, to understand population health.
Looking at the National Health Policy 2016–2026, he said that it represents a bold commitment to reorganise primary care, integrate preventive and curative services and use data-driven innovations.
In addition to immediate challenges such as pandemics, food insecurity and drug shortages, he reiterated that more profound systemic and social crises include disparities in resource distribution, access inequities and service delivery inefficiencies. To address these issues, a multidisciplinary approach prioritising health equity, resilience and sustainability is essential.
“The Health Systems Framework of the World Health Organization (WHO) identifies six key building blocks to strengthen health systems: service delivery, health workforce, health information systems, medical products and technologies, financing and leadership/governance. We wish to incorporate another essential building block: ‘people’. We must engage them in our decision-making processes and consider their concerns to move forward and realise the concept of one country, one health,” Dr. Perera pointed out.
He underscored that the SLMA’s Pathway to Potential initiative goes beyond aid and aims to break the cycle of poverty. It builds resilience, nurtures potential and offers a sustainable path out of poverty.
“Together, we can give every child a chance to succeed, ensuring a brighter future for them and Sri Lanka,” he added.
The ‘SLMA 2025 ROAD MAP’ on ‘Health Equity Across the Life Course: Resilient Pathways, Empowered Lives’ was launched at the ceremony.
(KH)
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