June deadline for private hospitals

Registration under new Act:

Nadira GUNATILLEKE

COLOMBO: All private medical institutions including private hospitals and nursing homes must register with the Private Health Services Regulation Council by June 22 this year, Healthcare and Nutrition Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva said.

“The registration will be a simple procedure which is free of charge. It will be a punishable offence if any private medical institution operates without registration afterwards,” de Silva said.

During a discussion with the owners and managements of all private medical institutions, the Minister said the main objective of this move is to promote, assist and boost private sector health services and not to suppress them.

“It is required to register all private medical institutions to streamline and recognise them. This will be very useful because the public can obtain their services with confidence and an assurance of good quality while the private medical institutions can promote their business through this recognition and credibility granted by the Government,” he said.

The meeting was held at the new Blood Bank auditorium, Colombo 5 to discuss the implementation of recently enacted Private Medical Institutions Act.

He said he would not use the new Act to restrict charges of doctors or private medical institutions in any way but procedures such as issuing a receipt for every patient for doctor’s charges will be compulsory because it helps both the patient and the doctor when something goes wrong.

Citing an example, he said that during a recent conflict between a doctor and a deceased patient’s family no party could come out with legally acceptable documents to show evidence of consultation and treatment.

All registered private medical institutions will be advertised on a website which will be useful for both the public and private medical institution owners.

The owners can advertise their services and the public can obtain the information through Internet about their nearest private medical institution whenever they require treatment, he added.

Minister de Silva said a special meeting will soon be held with President Mahinda Rajapaksa, BOI, private medical institution owners and all relevant parties to find solutions for the all existing administrative problems which block the progress of the private sector healthcare system.

According to the statistics both the State and private sector spend Rs. 60 billion each on health sector. More than 200 private hospitals and private nursing homes operate in Sri Lanka.

The number of private medical laboratories is 450. There are 5,000 private pharmacies.

There are seven private ambulance services. Nearly 12,000 public sector health service workers also engage in private practice.