Referral system to minimise congestion in hospitals

Nadira GUNATHILLEKE

COLOMBO: A referral system will be introduced shortly for Sri Lanka in order to minimise the congestion of the hospitals and minimise wastage of specialist doctors’ time and labour.

This will enable specialist doctors to spend more time for one patient. At the moment both relevant and irrelevant patients consult specialist doctors and blame the doctors saying that they spent very little time for one patient which is unavoidable, said Healthcare and Nutrition Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva.

“Although blaming the Government for everything is a common tendency today, epilepsy cannot be attributed as a shortcoming of the Government,” he said.

Addressing a press conference at the Health Education Bureau to announce the work programme to mark the July 5 Epilepsy Day, Minister De Silva said some people see all that Government does as wrong because they see things through coloured glasses and there are others who remain blind to things taking place around them.

“It is the responsibility of the journalists to eradicate myths from the society without promoting them,” he said.

“People believe that they should consult specialists all the time. For every little thing like a simple cold, they want to consult a specialist. When they consult a specialist they feel comfortable and are cured half, because their sickness is in their minds than in the bodies.

In other countries patients could not consult specialist doctors as they wish. In UK, they have to go through a long process to see a specialist and they are not able to consult them directly.

But in Sri Lanka all the patients consult specialists at every turn and those specialists are unable to allocate adequate time to spend with just one patient,” the Minister pointed out.

“We have to stop channelling culture and brainwash people taking away different myths inside their minds. It is important to educate people on all available treatment for epilepsy.

Other diseases such as diabetics and heart aliments can be managed with lifestyle changes but epilepsy is not such a disease. But we can treat epilepsy very effectively,” added the Minister.