HEALTH

Commercial Bank helps inspire cancer patients with Henry Jayasena story

The serious dearth of information on cancer, one of the major causes of death in Sri Lanka has prompted Mithuruwela Cancer Support Network and Commercial Bank to produce a DVD and a CD on veteran actor Henry Jayasena’s experience with cancer, to support and encourage cancer patients and their caregivers.

Titled Mage Kathawa (My Story), the documentary has been produced by the Mithuruwela Cancer Support Network, a registered non-profit organisation which promotes greater awareness and understanding of cancer with funding from the Corporate Social Responsibility Trust of the Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC.

“There are many misconceptions about cancer that keep patients away from appropriate treatments. Increasing awareness among patients and caregivers will help to increase the survival rates,” a spokesperson for Mithuruwela said.

Produced in collaboration with the Open University of Sri Lanka, the DVD and CD contain a thirty minute interview with Jayasena who elaborates on how he came to know about the cancer, how he obtained treatment and how he overcame the dreaded disease.

Commenting on this corporate social responsibility initiative, Commercial Bank’s AGM-Plan Implementation Richard Rodrigo said that the challenge of modern business is not just to perform financially well but to generate tangible benefits for different segments of society, especially those who are most disadvantaged and require empowerment immediately.

“We extended our support to the Mithuruwela Cancer Support Network, identifying its valuable contribution to society,” he said.

Henry Jayasena suffered from ‘Duke C’ (Stage 3) colon cancer in 1999 and underwent numerous treatments, including chemotherapy and radiation-treatment. His story will be important to other sufferers to encourage them not to lose hope.

These CDs and DVDs are available free at Mithuruwela Centre and those who are interested can obtain a copy by sending their contact details to Ms. Mala Thalayasingam No.70/1, Peterson Lane, Colombo 06 or to [email protected]

Nawaloka hospital commemorates World Heart Day 2008

This year’s World Heart Day was organised by the Sri Lanka Heart Association in collaboration with the primary sponsor Nawaloka Hospitals Plc.

The other joint collaborators were The Presidential Secretariat, Private Health Services Regulatory Council, the Ministry of Social Services and Social Welfare and the Soma Edirisinghe Punarjeewa Fund. This was the second occasion that the government and private sector jointly commemorated an international event; the idea of this Pubic-Private partnership being initiated by the Secretary to the President, Lalith Weeratunga.

A large crowd of participants from various organisations including several hospitals including Durdans Hospital, Apollo Hospital, Delmon Hospital and Hemas Hospital participated and gathered at the “Kaladuwa”, the Beira Lake island and then proceeded in procession to the Slave Island junction and back to the Nawaloka Hospital Car Park.

The welcome address was given by Director/General Manager of Nawaloka hospitals Prof. Lal Chandrasena.

Whilst welcoming all participants he highlighted the need to devote more time for one’s personal health. “Nawaloka Hospitals being the pioneers of heart surgery in the private sector are ever ready with modern technology and trained manpower to assist our people” he said.

He was followed by Dr. S.J. Stephen, the President of the Sri Lanka Heart Association. “A World Heart Day was established as a global initiative in 2001 to increase public awareness of the risks of heart disease and stroke and the importance of a heart healthy lifestyle. With 10-15 per cent of the Sri Lankan population being Diabetics - we could expect an explosion of Cardiovascular diseases in the future.

Therefore, it is our duty to prevent our citizens from being victims of this deadly cardiovascular disease”, said Dr. Stephen.

Singer helps Nuwara Eliya General Hospital bring in life

As part of its commitment to helping the country’s health sector, Singer (Sri Lanka) PLC identified the need to enhance and support the complete refurbishment and modernisation of the delivery room at the Nuwara Eliya General Hospital.

Over 500 deliveries are carried out each month at the hospital.

Nuwara Eliya remains an area where the infant mortality rates are relatively high when compared with the rest of the country. Singer, keeping the MDG 5 (Millennium Development Goals - Improve Maternal Health) into consideration, offered to lend a helping hand to the Nuwara Eliya General Hospital.

The hospital was in need of the appropriate equipment and facilities to carry out these deliveries safely and with minimum discomfort to expecting mothers.

On visiting the hospital, Singer worked closely with the resident doctors in order to identify the ward’s specific needs and obtain the correct specifications for each piece of equipment required. This was done to ensure that the hospital was provided with high quality equipment to suite the purpose.

The company donated 12 modern delivery beds, a Oxymeter, computer equipment and printers, along with trays and trolleys for medical tools. Delivery beds were custom made by a professional medical equipment company for the hospital. Also, Singer constructed a partition in the delivery room to make room for a waiting area for mothers prior to delivery.

As the company is committed to providing long term assistance to the individuals, institutions and organisations to which it extends its support Singer has agreed to take over the continuous maintenance of the entire maternal ward of the Nuwara Eliya General Hospital.

In addition the Singer Group also maintains Ward 25 of the Colombo South Hospital, the male ward at the Lunawa de Soysa Hospital and Ward number 3 of the Kethumathi Hospital in Panadura.

Quality products from SPMC

M. Farook Lantra

The Pharmaceuticals Manufacturing facility of the SPMC is equipped with modern Japanese and German machines. The manufacturing facility has an ultra clean atmosphere and GMP’s conform to World Health Organisation (WHO) Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) requirements. And in-house fully equipped laboratory conforms the best quality on each unit it’s manufactured.

The current annual production is 1000 million units of tablets and capsules and 60,000 liters of dry syrup. The present production of essential drugs exceeds the installed capacity by about 60% and the SPMC is planning to increase its capacity further.

All SPMC products comply with the USP (United States Pharmacopoeia), BP (British Pharmacopoeia) and SPMC in-house standards. At present, the SPMC manufactures 59 essential drugs under Generic names, covering a wide spectrum of pharmacological activity.

The SPMC is supplying drugs to Egypt, Myanmar, Philippines, Fiji Islands, Bangladesh and Papua New Guinea and touched International markets through the WHO and JICA recommendation.

The International Community has therefore shown its confidence in the State Pharmaceuticals Manufacturing Corporation.