The Hon. Ashoka Gunasena

¶ 01 Hon. Presiding Member, I am pleased to speak on the Health and Mass Media expenditure heads. This Budget seeks fairness across districts, benefiting the public and us as their representatives. Earlier, some said the health sector was developed in the districts of then Ministers or Presidents. In contrast, this Budget is policy-driven, focusing on national needs, not on a Minister’s or President’s home district.

¶ 02 Compared to previous times, this is a good Budget, though relative to total needs, there may be shortfalls. The Leader of the Opposition asked to regularize about 300 dengue control assistants. The Minister explained many with lower qualifications were already made permanent earlier, and the remaining 300 would be regularized. These issues arise from years of irregular recruitments — done by those now in the Opposition. We are compelled to solve problems created by them, as the President said — fixing old messes while moving forward.

¶ 03 On indigenous medicine: for over 2,500 years, people nurtured various systems — Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani, Deshiya Chikitsa, and Homoeopathy. Today, more people use Western medicine, so allocations mainly follow demand and institutional coverage, but that does not mean we neglect indigenous systems. There is the Department of Ayurveda with hospitals and herbal gardens: four teaching hospitals, seven research institutes, and seven research and extension herbal gardens. The National Institute of Traditional Medicine provides training. Our policy is to develop these and use them for public welfare. Importantly, we are now integrating indigenous medicine into the National Health Policy — which historically excluded it — laying a foundation for expansion.

¶ 04 We will start integrated care — combining Western and Ayurvedic treatment for selected diseases — and later include other traditional systems. We will promote health and wellness tourism, bringing economic returns and relief to people. We will promote local medicinal cultivation, reducing foreign exchange spent on drug imports and improving quality supply. We aim to develop and conserve traditional systems, introduce a health management and information system for the sector, and elevate it to meet public needs. That is our objective within this Head of Expenditure. Thank you.