HEALTHCARE IN SL: IS BUSINESS AS USUAL AN OPTION?
COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER, WHO, SRI LANKA
This week national and international experts gathered in Sri Lanka to discuss the country’s proposed healthcare reforms. The main focus of discussion was the government’s policy on the delivery of Universal Health Coverage and how best to implement one of the cornerstones of this policy, an Essential Service Package (ESP), representing a shift in the way healthcare is delivered in Sri Lanka.
The ESP represents a major strengthening of the primary healthcare system of the country. The conference was part of a process that has been going on for a number of months, with consultations on the ESP taking place all over the country.
Inaugurating the conference, Health and Indigenous Medicine Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne reminded the audience of over 300 delegates that Sri Lanka boasted a tradition of innovation in healthcare and that there was already considerable momentum behind reorganising the system to meet the changing healthcare needs of the population. Cabinet approval has already been given to this move.
Emerging challenges of an ageing society and non-communicable diseases like diabetes, hypertension, stroke and cancer will need reorganisation of human resources and the ways in which health services are delivered. It will require a change in the mindset of not only healthcare providers but the public at large. Quality, affordable and inter-linked healthcare services need to be delivered close to where people live.
Technical work supporting this policy has been undertaken by the Health and Indigenous Medicine Ministry and the WHO. Other development partners -- World Bank, Asian Development Bank and the Global Fund -- are supporting this reorganisation.
Dr. Razia Pendse, the WHO representative in Sri Lanka, told the audience that changing demographics and epidemiological challenges meant that the country could no longer afford to carry on ‘business as usual.’
“Primary healthcare by design is people-centric and services need to be designed and delivered with focus on people and not individual diseases we need to design these programmes with a people focus rather than being disease focused.”
The new approach to healthcare delivery that many delegates called for was underscored by the fact that the conference was run in parallel with the national consultation on the ending of TB and AIDS in Sri
Lanka with many of the delegates attending sessions in both.
WHO Assistant Director-general for Communicable Diseases, Dr. Ren Minghui emphasised that the twin goals of ending TB and AIDS and strengthening public healthcare were mutually reinforcing and intertwined. He told the audience that Sri Lanka’s systemic investment in health had achieved much, and had resulted in tangible gains for the country. Strengthening primary healthcare is absolutely essential to make health system sustainable.
Sri Lanka’s history of combating communicable disease and success with elimination of many diseases like Malaria, Lymphatic Filariasis and maternal and neonatal tetanus make it one of the leading candidate countries to also end TB and AIDS by 2030. To do that the country needs to take innovative and bold actions.
Reinforcing the government’s financial commitment to these changes, State Minister of Finance Eran Wickramaratne told the conference delegates that the country was in a commendable position to move forward with primary healthcare reorganisation.
By placing a much greater emphasis on the primary system Dr. Paul Nunn, an advisor to the national programme for TB control and chest diseases, was optimistic that the strengthening of the primary healthcare system would be a major step forward in eliminating TB and AIDS from the country with many of the undiagnosed cases being detected by a reinvigorated primary system.
At the end of the two days, Dr. Susie Perera de Silva, Acting Deputy Director-general (Public Health Services) commented on the success of both the consultation and the conference. A national conversation had started. What everyone was calling for now was nothing short of a paradigm change in the way healthcare in Sri Lanka was delivered. But she believed that the country and the stakeholders supporting it would rise to the challenge.
CABINET APPROVES REORGANISING THE SYSTEM TO MEET CHANGING HEALTHCARE NEEDS TECHNICAL WORK SUPPORTING THIS POLICY UNDERTAKEN BY THE HEALTH MINISTRY AND WHO OFFICIAL SAYS STRENGTHENING PRIMARY HEALTHCARE SYSTEM WILL BE A MAJOR STEP FORWARD IN ELIMINATING TB AND AIDS
The new approach to healthcare delivery that many delegates called for was underscored by the fact that the conference was run in parallel with the national consultation on the ending of TB and AIDS in Sri Lanka with many of the delegates attending sessions in both