Uganda studying Lanka’s free health system

Nadira Gunatilleke

A delegation from Uganda is in Sri Lanka to obtain first hand experience and for consultations with Sri Lankan health authorities to establish a free health service in Uganda, a Health Ministry spokesman said.

The spokesman said the seven member Ugandan team will study how Sri Lanka’s free health service functions through the network of state hospitals, how Sri Lanka achieved top positions in International Health indicators, etc.

The team will visit Karapitiya Teaching Hospital, Galle, Kandy Teaching Hospital, Lady Ridgeway Children’s Hospital in the next few days.

Health Ministry Secretary Dr Nihal Jayatilleke told them that Sri Lanka’s free health service has been in existence for 75 years and 99 percent of child births in Sri Lanka take place in hospitals and out of them 95 percent deliveries take place under the observation of specialist doctors. Dr Jayatilleke also told the delegation that Sri Lanka’s current maternal mortality rate is only 31 per 100,000 births and the infant mortality rate is only nine per 1,000 live births.

“Sri Lanka is aiming at lowering this figure to five by 2016.

The current life expectancy of a Sri Lankan woman is 78 years and it is 74 for a man. The National Immunisation programme covers 100 percent of the country,” he said.