Hon. (Dr.) Pathmanathan Sathiyalingam

¶ 01 Hon. Presiding Member, I second the Adjournment Motion on the implementation of a National Strategic Plan for Eye Health in Sri Lanka moved by the Hon. (Dr.) Ramanathan Archchuna. In Sinhala, it is “අක්ෂි සෞඛ්‍යය සඳහා ජාතික උපාය මාර්ගික සැලසුම.” Actually, Sri Lanka is struggling to prevent blindness among adults less than 40 years of age, at around 1.7 per cent. That has a significant impact.

¶ 02 Since the Hon. (Dr.) Ramanathan Archchuna also spoke in English, I will present some points in Tamil. In Sri Lanka, achieving the reduction of blindness among adults under 40 to around 1.5 per cent faces many challenges. The main issue is that proper preventive measures are not being adequately implemented. The leading causes include cataract, uncorrected refractive errors, glaucoma, and diabetic retinopathy. The proposal before us is to establish a national plan in Sri Lanka and, through it, to put in place sustainable measures and pathways to eliminate this burden. This proposal is very important, and I therefore request that it be implemented.

¶ 03 At present, it is said that 1.5 million people in Sri Lanka need cataract surgery. However, in the Northern Province, particularly at the Jaffna Teaching Hospital and Vavuniya General Hospital, the waiting list is not large. In Jaffna, Dr. Malaravan is providing excellent service, and in Vavuniya, Dr. Kiritharan is doing the same. There, an eye surgeon can perform about 400–450 cataract surgeries per month in a single theatre. If similar capacity is achieved across the country, we would not have such a large backlog.

¶ 04 In the Northern Province, the Cataract Surgical Rate (CSR) is approximately 15 per 1,000 population. In some districts it is 8, and overall Sri Lanka’s CSR is about 3. In our Northern Province, providing this level of service has been possible. The Government alone does not have to bear all the costs. If such efforts are undertaken islandwide, many NGOs and international organizations are ready to help. With their support, we have achieved this success in the North. While the national CSR may be around 3–8 in some places, we have brought it to 15 in the North. This has been achieved through the joint efforts of unit doctors and the working team.

¶ 05 I strongly endorse the National Strategic Plan for Eye Health proposed by Hon. (Dr.) Ramanathan Archchuna. If this proposal is implemented across Sri Lanka, we can very soon reach a time when preventable blindness is significantly reduced or eliminated. Thank you.