Health budget to increase three-fold

Irangika Range

Healthcare and Nutrition Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva said the Treasury has agreed to increase the health budget three-fold to uplift the public health facilities to improve the quality of lives.

Addressing the inauguration of the Nirogi Lanka project in Colombo, Minister de Silva said last year the health budget was Rs. 89,000 million; it will increase upto Rs. 267,000 million next year.

The Minister said the Government is fully committed towards a free health service to the public. He said the Nirogi Lanka project funded by the World Diabetes Foundation would address persons suffering with diabetes targeting particularly the lower socio-economic groups in the country.

The World Diabetes Foundation has funded US$ 625 million to implement the project for three years in Sri Lanka.

The project will be implemented by the Diabetes Prevention Task Force of Sri Lanka Medical Association to improve the quality of diabetic care in the country.

The Minister said diabetes has become a big threat in the world. "We must pay our full attention to prevent the Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) by allocating sufficient local and foreign funds as the highest priority should be given to communicable diseases surveillance," he said.

The Ministry is in the process of setting up two diabetic units in Batticaloa and Jaffna hospitals for diabetic patients in the North and East.

It is reported that children have been highly affected by diabetes. "We have clearly understood this burden and decided to develop a national program for NCD prevention," he said.

As an initiative, we have finalised the NCD policy and the strategic framework and the operational plan is being developed. The project is expected to be implemented at district level.

It will also give us the inputs to train the district team in addition to the proposed diabetic nurses education. Health Ministry's NCD Unit's Director Dr. Lal Panapitiya said according to recent studies, 20 percent of the population is Hypertensive, 15 percent diabetic, and 20 percent suffer from metabolic syndrome.

Furthermore, in 2001, 71 percent of all deaths was attributed to chronic NCDs while heart disease accounted for 35 percent of those deaths.

Cerebrovascular conditions was 6 percent and diabetes 5 percent. These were the other leading causes of NCD deaths.

In addition, 14 percent of schoolchildren in grade four and five in Colombo schools are reported as overweight and obese, indicating the high risk of getting diabetes.

World Diabetes Foundation's Managing Director, Dr. Anil Kapur said diabetes not only affected the individual it can affect the whole family. He said the Sri Lankan Government has taken satisfactory action to prevent diabetes.

He said millions of people in the world have become disabled due to diabetes. They have lost their limbs and eyes and it has become a social problem.

Therefore, focusing attention on diabetes prevention is essential.