A total of 1,056 newly trained family health service officers received their appointment letters at a ceremony at Temple Trees on Sunday, held under the patronage of Minister of Health and Mass Media Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa.
The appointees had completed a one-and-a-half-year training programme, Hiru News reported. The Health Ministry said they will be deployed to hospitals and healthcare institutions run by provincial councils and the line ministry across the island.
Family health service officers — the cadre also known as public health midwives — deliver community-level care, including maternal and child health work that reaches patients outside hospital settings.
The recruitment numbers behind the ceremony
The minister placed Sunday’s batch inside a larger run of hiring. 976 officers were recruited last March, he said, and 39 more are still to receive appointments. Taken together, 2,071 family health service officers have been recruited over the past two years, alongside provisions for promotions, allowances and training.
Jayatissa also said steps are under way to provide Scooty-type motorcycles to around 2,900 family health service officers by December, to help them cover the areas they serve.
What the minister told the appointees
Speaking at the event, Jayatissa said the appointees were joining the health sector during a period of change, and that understanding the direction of that change makes service delivery easier and helps reduce the inter-professional friction that can hold up progress.
He said the government is directing all sectors under its “Rich Country, Beautiful Life” programme toward citizen-centred healthcare, and commended public health professionals for building a maternal and child health model — covering immunisation, infant nutrition and reduced infant mortality — that he described as an example internationally.
Who attended
Ministry Secretary Specialist Dr. Anil Jasinghe and Director General of Health Services Specialist Dr. Asela Gunawardena also spoke. Additional Secretaries Chamika H. Gamage and Harshani Sirinama attended, along with deputy directors general, senior assistant secretaries and other ministry officials.
Not reported
The account does not say how the 1,056 posts are distributed across provinces or districts, what the cadre’s current total strength or vacancy count is, or what starting salary the appointees receive. It gives no cost for the Scooty motorcycle programme and does not say how the 2,900 recipients will be selected. No figure is given for how many family health service officer posts remain unfilled nationally.
Only Hiru News had filed an English-language account of the ceremony at the time of writing. Ada Derana’s report could not be retrieved — its pages have returned a CloudFront block for nine consecutive days.
