The Hon. Sugath Wasantha de Silva
Hon. Sugath Wasantha de Silva thanked the Deputy Minister for the response and acknowledged the islandwide health programme to reduce disability. He raised concerns about communication barriers between health staff and persons with disabilities, particularly regarding sign language. He also asked the Ministry to address the requirement in some hospitals for disabled patients to have a paid companion caregiver before admission, and to consider alternative arrangements.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Hon. Deputy Minister, thank you very much for the answer.
¶ 02 My first supplementary question is this. I am pleased that the Ministry of Health and health staff are implementing a comprehensive islandwide programme to minimize disability, reflected in high values in national health indicators. However, I believe there is a problem in communication between health staff and persons with disabilities, especially regarding sign language and related aspects.
¶ 03 Hon. Deputy Minister, the other issue is this. After a person with a disability is admitted to a hospital, it becomes necessary to assign a companion caregiver to them; otherwise, some wards do not admit them. This is very unfortunate, and the admitted person with a disability incurs a large cost for such a companion. Will you look into this and present an alternative arrangement?
Provenance
- Source
- Hansard, Tuesday, 17 February 2026 ·No. 23279 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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/lk/speeches/5812
Cite as: The Hon. Sugath Wasantha de Silva. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 17 February 2026. No. 23279. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/5812