Estate hospital OPDs open till 8pm

Nadira GUNATILLEKE

“Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena has ordered health officials to keep Outdoor Patients’ Departments (OPDs) of all estate hospitals open till 8 pm. All state hospital OPDs have been kept open from 8 am to 8 pm since last year, “a Health Ministry spokesman said.

According to the spokesman, there are about 150 estate hospitals and around 100 of them belong to the Health Ministry, while the rest are run by estate companies. All estate hospitals will offer their OPD services till 8 pm. The percentage of patients who seek medical treatment from the OPDs at state hospitals between 4 pm and 8 pm has risen by 15 to 20 percent,” he said.

“The drug requirement has also gone up by 35 per cent. Around 2.5 million people receive treatment at the Colombo National Hospital OPD annually.

The government allocated a total of Rs. 16.3 billion this year to purchase drugs,” he added.