The Hon. (Dr.) Nalinda Jayatissa — Minister of Health and Mass Media

¶ 01 Hon. Member, the Batticaloa Teaching Hospital is the only Central Government hospital in the District and the sole Teaching Hospital in the Eastern Province; other hospitals are under the Provincial Council. We currently have no plan to take provincial hospitals under the Centre; any such move would require provincial concurrence.

¶ 02 Regarding Batticaloa Teaching Hospital: we expect to provide an MRI scanner by the end of this year; procurement is underway. A CT scanner will also certainly be provided to that hospital. On the cath lab, we discussed expediting the process; Batticaloa must receive these facilities. While specialist staffing for all base hospitals is presently constrained, our immediate priority is to strengthen the Teaching Hospital with requisite specialists, staff and equipment swiftly. We will proceed accordingly.