The Hon. (Dr.) Nihal Abeysinghe

¶ 01 Hon. Deputy Chairperson, I am pleased to participate in the Committee Stage Debate on the Heads of Expenditure of the Ministries of Health and Media. I will focus mainly on Health.

¶ 02 Our Health and Media Minister and the State Ministers took charge at a very difficult time. As a medical officer who served 27 years in the Ministry of Health and Department of Health Services, I thank all health staff who supported steering the Ministry in the right direction. Over the next four years, we must guide the Ministry to meet the people’s basic needs.

¶ 03 In 1978, at WHO’s Alma-Ata Conference on Primary Health Care, Sri Lanka was recognized as a leader. Many countries studied our service model. However, after 2000—especially post-2010—our health services faced many challenges, notably in hospitals. Yet public health—especially maternal and child health and control of communicable diseases—remained well organized, enabling us to eradicate or control vaccine-preventable diseases and others like malaria and filariasis.

¶ 04 Recently, we faced significant challenges. Foremost was the drug shortage when we assumed office. Through interventions of the Medical Supplies Division, NMRA, State Pharmaceuticals Corporation, and State Pharmaceuticals Manufacturing Corporation, we launched special operations to improve the situation. In prior years, estimates for drugs, devices and supplies were not prepared or funded on time, causing the crisis our Minister had to confront from day one. There were also supplier-related issues; we import about 80 percent of drug types. Lead times and small procurements caused problems; we are now better organizing these processes.

¶ 05 A second issue is human resources—especially in hospitals—due to delays in training and appointments in previous years, causing shortages. With the Minister’s intervention, we have addressed much of this, training and appointing nurses and Public Health staff in significant numbers.

¶ 06 Budgetary allocations were insufficient for years. In this Budget, Health receives Rs. 654 billion—Rs. 543.1 billion recurrent; Rs. 111.1 billion capital; Rs. 43.4 billion for hospital development; Rs. 363.3 billion for operations; Rs. 187.7 billion for medical supplies; Rs. 12.9 billion for nutrition (including Triposha); Rs. 10.4 billion for disease prevention; Rs. 1.3 billion for health research; Rs. 24.9 billion for staff capacity development; Rs. 4.2 billion for “Suwa Sariya” ambulance service; and Rs. 6 billion to develop indigenous medicine facilities.

¶ 07 On primary care, our policy is to establish “Suwaatha Centres” for treatment and prevention. We have launched pilots at: Kalutara-Talpitya; Ratnapura-Ethoya; Galle-Mapalagama; Kandy-Polgollawatta; and Matale-Dankanda. For example, under the Walawwatta MOH Office in Kalutara District, the Nalpitiyawala-Uladawatta Suwaatha Centre covers three GN divisions. We have already enumerated households, registered 238 families, identified over-60 persons (206), and documented non-communicable disease burdens per household to guide care and reduce congestion at tertiary hospitals.

¶ 08 Regarding NMRA reforms: registration delays existed for years. We have cleared a substantial backlog and are registering medical devices too, with 11,192 new applications submitted. We recruited 107 officers to key categories at NMRA, improving performance. We have set maximum retail prices for 359 essential drugs, to enable future price regulation. Digitization of NMRA is progressing rapidly, and we intend to amend the NMRA Act soon.

¶ 09 At the Medical Supplies Division, we are conducting hospital-level reviews of medicines. For the first time, we called for 2026 requirements to be submitted by 31 January, and for 2027 by 31 December, so that thereafter drug availability can be ensured. We are addressing storage constraints for air and sea consignments, and holding monthly review meetings on drug availability.

¶ 10 Therefore, we believe the measures under way will enable us to meet the challenges and deliver a closer, better health service to the people. Thank you.