Provide 24 hour OPD services – President directs health authorities; A move for a Patient friendly health service
The President Sunday directed the Secretary, Health Ministry to initiate a system to keep all Out Patient Departments (OPD) in the Hospitals open to the public, 24 hours.
The Hospitals in Sri Lanka offer health care services to people free of charge and as a result the OPD’s are always over crowded and the patients are put into difficulties with extended waiting time. This has become a central issue in the health care service.
Outpatient services have gradually become an essential component in the health care systems of the hospitals. The President has issued this new directive with the aim to serve the Nation to build a healthier community and to be recognized as one of the best in the region. Maintaining an exceptional and compassionate quality while offering cost effective health care solutions of international standards is the other objectives of this new initiatives.
The health care services are provided by government hospitals mostly during the day times and the patient have to rush in the morning hours to get their turns reserved. But this arrangement appears not to be patient friendly because the timing of services do not tally with the needs of the patient thus making it not customer friendly.
Generally patients prefer to consult their doctors at the end of their days work. Since the services such as consultations, laboratory and other tests provided by the government hospitals are not available in the evening hours the patients tend to approach private medical services for their health needs at high cost despite the government spends billions of rupees to maintain the free health services.
Government believes that every person has the right to be treated with the utmost respect and consideration. Therefore the government has taken these new initiatives to care about patients through 24 hour services..
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This is excellent news for the ordinary people who cannot afford private healthcare. Our Hon President is truly a noble and great man who walks in the spirit of Lord Buddha on the path of virtue. He will have many enemies as a result, from within the country and outside, who will try to shut him up, because they want to subotage his efforts and subvert the country. The forces of evil will mobilise against him to try to bring him down. No amount of security can truly protect him. It is his virtue alone that will be his shield. We should all pray daily to GOD to protect him and his family always and his ministers so that they may render even a greater service to our people.
I implore the health practioners in our country to be evermore dedicated to the healthcare of the Service Users in hospitals. To be courteous and respectful to them. Not to look down upon the sick in their care. To be imbued with the noble spirit of Lord Buddha and King Buddhadasa of old, who despite being a king, treated all manner of ailments in man and animals. King Buddhadasa even carried out surgery and had written treatises on his medical discoveries and treatments with Ayurveda. No other king has ever been an expert in the field of medicine centuries ago or even today. Let us re-discover these Ayurveda treatments of King Buddhadasa and grow medicinal plants to treat ailments in man and animal, which Western medicine cannot treat. People from all over the world would then flock to our island in search of cures for their ailments. With the healthy cashflow we would be able to settle our foreign debts and develop our country even more.
We can then truly be proud of our healthcare. We would indeed be the Miracle of Asia. Under the prudent and courageous leadership of our noble President our land and our people would flourish. All our peoples would enjoy a better quality of life for themselves and their children and prosperity to lead a noble spiritual life, caring for one-another, as one united family serving the motherland.
I appeal to JVP, UNP, TNA not to follow policies of division and anarchy anymore, to capture power at any cost to the detriment of the country and our people. Let our common purpose be to serve the motherland. Let us not be power-hungry and create civil unrest using university students as tools by force to cause death and destruction as in 1971 and in 1988/89. It will achieve them nothing. They will be hated all the more. I appeal to all these political parties to join hands with our noble President, to set aside petty party politics, to work together to achieve noble goals for the good of our motherland, our people.
Let our country be a shining model for the whole world of what can be achieved under the noble truths of Buddhism in this ensuing year of Buddha Jayanthi.
I am thrilled with pleasure as I heard that HE president has commanded to open OPD for 24 hours in state maintained hospitals for the public who daily faces difficulties and numerous sufferings when getting treatments I pray guardian God of Srilanka to bless our leader of the masses HE MR tolive longer than the prescribed time given by the horoscope at the time of his birth Every body will be inspired by BY HE Mahinda Rajapaksa,s decision He deserve an ocean of credits and we should owe HIM deeply ,