Health Ministry hotline before February end

Nadira GUNATILLEKE

The Healthcare and Nutrition Ministry will introduce a three digit 24=hour hotline (similar to 119) to the public by the end of this month to offer a better healthcare service to the public and to make it more people friendly, Healthcare and Nutrition Ministry sources said. According to the sources, the public and the health staff can make any complaint any time of the day to this hotline.

The hotline will be operated by trained professionals. The hotline will be connected to a special monitoring unit in the ministry.

Both the public and health staff can complain about incidents in connection with rudeness, using bad language, medical negligence, shortage of drugs and dengue mosquito breeding places.

The ministry recently discovered that some dispensers in State hospitals inform patients that drugs are not available to avoid getting drugs from the hospital store.

When the drug is over at the counter, the dispenser does not obtain the drug from the hospital store and inform patients that the drug is not available.

Patients are forced to go to private pharmacies to buy the drug and sometimes inform the media of 'drug shortages'.