Call to form Charter to curb braindrain

by Bharatha Malawaraarachchi

Healthcare and Nutrition Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva suggested to the 23rd Meeting of the Ministers of Health and 58th session of the WHO's Regional Committee for South-East Asia to collectively develop a charter to reduce the adverse effects of the health sector "brain drain."

"I would like to propose to develop a Covenant or Charter that will enable us to negotiate a more systematic flow of health personnel and persuade the recipient countries also to share some of the pains of such movement,"De Silva addressing the inaugural meeting in Colombo said.

"We would welcome the WHO's advice and technical support in formulating such initiatives," he added.

The Minister explained that Lanka is a country that has seen the adverse effects of the health sector braindrain.

In his address, De Silva said;

"We are grateful to you for sparing your valuable time to come to our country, and contribute your wealth of experience and wisdom, in spite of your pressing responsibilities".

I sincerely hope that your stay in our country would be happy, rewarding and enjoyable. I also hope that we have been able to provide you with pleasant and conducive surroundings that will facilitate a successful meeting".

Our region of only 11 countries, is home for one-fourth of the world's population and shares 40% of the global disease burden. Today, health systems in all our countries are overburdened. While we are working together to control priority communicable diseases crossing borders, non-communicable diseases (NCDs) have emerged mainly due to unwholesome lifestyles and have become a major public health problem.

Health systems are further strained by having to address the problems posed by preventable deaths from NCDs, road accidents, mental illness and disasters. Hence, our Region needs more resources to improve our health systems to meet these daunting challenges. We need to renew our collective will and dedication to this uphill task".

"We welcome WHO's role in strengthening its capabilities to meet global epidemics and diasters. I am glad these topics will be discussed extensively during our meetings. Indeed, what is paramount is WHO's continued leadership and our regional solidarity to harness all of our collective wisdom and mobilize more resources and to make the best use out of these".

"Sri Lanka has achieved several noteworthy strides in health during the past few decades. We have already reached several Millennium Development Goals. People are living healthier than any time in our history, enjoying a lifespan of well over 70 years, comparing to the Regional average of around 60 years, with lower infant, maternal and adult mortality rates than ever before.

"Many of the achievements in the field of health have been predicated by a long tradition of investment in the social sector, predominantly in health and education.

The relatively high health status that our people enjoy, as indicated by the vital indicators, can be directly attributed to these farsighted policies of our predecessors.

"Three years ago established a National Macroeconomics and Health Commission to study the health financing issues and recommend policy directions.

I am glad to inform you that in the past year our President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga who has an abiding interest in health issues, and my cabinet colleagues, were fully convinced of the need to increase our investment in health. They agreed that an increase in the health budget was not consumption expenditure, but a productive and worthwhile investment that is critical for sustained socio-economic development. As a result we managed a substantial increase in our health budget from Rs. 29 billion to 44 billion.

"The tsunami taught us so many lessons. It also tested us beyond and limit. We were heartened by the fact that we seemed to have the fundamentals of a resilient health system in place, low cost and under resource no doubt, and that we were able to meet the ravages of tsunami and emerge in reasonably good shape and begin the recovery without much delay.

"Now we all need to work together to set in place Regional and National Health Sector Disaster Management Masterplans to make sure that we are well prepared for any emergency of such magnitude in the future.

While the public sector is the mainstay of our health system, we are constantly encouraging the private sector to participate in a meaningful ways in health care.

The public-private partnership in health is growing in Sri Lanka, and to ensure that the community receives acceptable and ethical health care, we are adopting a Private Medical Institutions Bill that will facilitate and regulate the private sector growth.

The enormous mental health challenges of the tsunami gave us the opportunity to revise our Mental Health Policy that will lead to the establishment of a community based mental health service in my country. This work has been supported a great deal by the work that we have undertaken with WHO and other UN partners in the post-tsunami period.

The Government is providing HIV treatment free of charge to the positives on an experimental basis and this will continue as a national program. We are determined to maintain the current low prevalence state in my country".