Specialists barred from going abroad until January

Nadira Gunatilleke

The Healthcare and Nutrition Ministry has restricted specialist doctors from going abroad until January 31 next year. The Ministry has taken this decision under the direction of Healthcare and Nutrition Minister Nimal Siripala De Silva considering the prevailing urgent health needs of the country.

The Ministry has also decided not to approve leave for foreign travel for all health staffs till February, next year. Members of health staff, can travel abroad only for essential requirements. According to the spokesman specialist doctors are allowed to go abroad only for personal reasons such as family requirements, Postgraduate studies, examinations etc. They will not allowed to go abroad for conferences, workshops, seminars and similar events until January 31, 2010.

Meanwhile, the Ministry requests the public to seek medical treatment for any type of flu with fever, cough and similar symptoms.

The Ministry has already made arrangements to ensure the safety of all health staff managing (A)H1N1 patients, by providing around 20,000 N95 masks. There are 25,000 N95 masks in the stores and to be released for health staff. Another 100,000 N95 masks will reach the Ministry within this week. There are 36 hospitals countrywide ready to treat (A)H1N1 patients, he said.

All hospital directors of main hospitals, provincial health directors and regional health officials have already been given powers to handle (A)H1N1 at provincial and regional level. They have been instructed to carry out relevant medical tests before sending samples to the Medical Research Institute (MRI) to save money, time and other resources.

One (A)H1N1 test costs the State between Rs.12,000 and 20,000. On November 23 the MRI tested 50 samples and only three were found positive.

The institute tested 850 samples from June 16 to November 23 and 260 samples found positive. The sample should be sent to the MRI only under the recommendation of a microbiologist. But so far almost all samples were sent to the MRI without any preliminary testing.