Pulmuddai hospital further enhances India-Lanka ties - Minister

UDITHA KUMARASINGHE and IRANGIKA RANGE

Leader of the House and Healthcare and Nutrition Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva told Parliament yesterday that the mobile hospital set up in Pulmuddai by the Indian Government will further enhance the bilateral ties between the two countries.

“It is a small hospital with only 45 beds and will never be a security threat to Sri Lanka,” the Minister said. The Minister was responding to a special statement by JVP MP Anura Kumara Dissanayake.

The Minister said that India is a friendly nation. “It is difficulty to wipe out terrorism in the country, if India has not supported us,” he said. “We appreciated the fullest cooperation extended by the Indian Government in this regard,” he said.

“This mobile hospital has erected temporarily and the medical personnel to be employed will not be Indian military personnel,” he said.

He said, Sri Lankan doctors were not willing to serve in the conflict areas. Therefore the Health Ministry has struggled with finding replacements for the shortage of manpower,” he said. Meanwhile, the army also does not have the required number of medical personnel.

Therefore, we have decided to give priority for the Sri Lanka Army when doctors are recruited to the hospitals,” he said.

He said that 1,500 new nurses would be recruited and 700 of them will be deployed in the North.

He said the Indian medical staff will provide urgent medical treatment and aid to people fleeing from the LTTE held areas.

“We have given a list of medicines which we desperately required at the moment and the Indian Government is helping us by providing stocks of medicines,” he noted.