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A'pura Hospital patients in a fix

by Bharatha Malawaraarachchi

A tug-of-war between the authorities has left thousands of patients seeking treatment at the Anuradhapura General Hospital in distress while the Government doctors have urged for the take over of the hospital under the direction of the Central Government's Health Ministry.

Doctors claimed that all routine operations at the hospital had been postponed over the last six weeks due to lack of essential facilities and has affected poor patients.

"Only emergency life saving operations are performed at the hospital while all other surgeries have been postponed," a surgeon who wished to remain anonymous told the Daily News. He said repeated requests by the doctors to the authorities had gone unheeded.

However, North Central Province Chief Minister Berty Premalal Dissanayake under whose purview the hospital comes, rejected the allegation saying steps have been taken to provide facilities.

"We have given the required facilities to this hospital despite the reduction of funds allocated to us by the Central Government," said the Chief Minister adding that if more funds were allocated, more facilities could be provided.

Meanwhile, the Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) has urged the Health Ministry to take the hospital under the Health Ministry to provide an efficient service.

"The basic facilities at the hospital's operating theatre have not been maintained at all during the last few years," GMOA spokesman Dr. Channa Perera said in a release.

Dissanayake said the operation theatre is under repairs and once restoration work is completed, the facilities would be provided.

Around 20-25 routine operations were performed at the hospital before the crisis.

The surgeon attributed the situation to the shortage of essential surgical and other infrastructure facilities at the hospital for which the provincial and other health authorities had failed to take any measures for the last few months. All surgeries including orthopaedic, neuro, ENT, etc have been postponed indefinitely until the facilities return to normal.

"We have repeatedly requested the provincial authorities to look into this situation and take remedial measures. But no steps had been taken to resolve this problem," the surgeon said.

He said the hospital had been receiving step-motherly treatment and unfortunately poor patients suffer in silence.

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