Badulla General Hospital to get all modern facilities:

Uva health needs to be cured soon

Dharma Sri Abeyratne

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The following article is based on an interview with Acting Director, Uva Provincial General Hospital, Badulla, Dr. Madubhashini Karunarathne

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The Government will upgrade health facilities in the Uva Province, allocating Rs. 850 million to facilitate over 1.5 million people in the Province.

Under this program, Uva Provincial General Hospital, Badulla will be upgraded with all modern treatment facilities and technology to provide an improved service to patients.

Under the new phase of the hospital development program, three buildings are being built. A five storeyed building will be used as a drug store and children wards. There will be a modern drug store as drugs have to be stored safely in suitable conditions while protecting the quality of drugs.

To date, neither Badulla hospital nor the Uva Province had no such facility. The fourth and fifth storeys will be used as children wards, Acting Director of General Hospital, Badulla, Dr. Karunarathne said.

A psychiatric unit and a chest clinic will also be set up in a four storeyed building. The Uva Province is badly in need of a psychiatric unit for a long period and patients are being transferred to Kandy, Colombo or Peradeniya hospitals. This process is complecated to patients as well as to the hospital,” Dr. Karunarathne said.

Apart from these buildings another large building consisting five storeys is being constructed by Red Cross Society. “The premises where the OPD is set up is not spacious enough for OPD patients. We receive more than 1,000 OPD patients daily. Therefore, the OPD will be shifted to the new building soon after the construction is completed,” she said.

Eye, ENT and Mental clinics will also be established in the new building with more facilities. After competing the construction, modern ICU and an operating theatre will be set up in the building. As there is an increasing demand for paying wards, eight paying wards and a canteen will be constructed.

The building would consist an auditorium and a cardiology unit. All medical equipment and other facilities will be supplied by the Red Cross Society at a cost of Rs. 100 million.

“We faced much difficulties as we did not have quarters for ‘On call doctors’. But moves are underway to construct six quarters for On call doctors and 20 other doctors and matron quarters,” the doctor said.

“The hospital has over 1,300 beds and it receives patients from neighbouring small hospitals such as Diyathalawa, Mahiyanganaya and far way hospitals like Ampara and Batticaloa. Around 300 patients are admitted daily while more than 1,000 patients receive OPD treatment.

The number of theatres are increased to ten from three.

It is a great opportunity for the Province to have a full-fledged hospital with all modern medical equipment and facilities.

Thereafter, the patients need not be transferred to Colombo, Kandy or Peradeniya hospitals. The support and guidance of Helathcare and Nutrition Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva is highly appreciated,” she said.