Steps will be taken to keep cancer treatment running without interruption at Apeksha Hospital in Maharagama, with urgent attention to equipment, medicine supplies, staff shortages and the expansion of treatment facilities, Deputy Health Minister Dr. Hansaka Wijemuni has said, according to the Daily Mirror.
He was speaking at a special hospital management review meeting held in the hospital auditorium to examine current operations, patient care and future development plans.
Equipment and buildings
Dr. Wijemuni called for a new master plan for the hospital, to be drawn up with the Central Engineering Consultancy Bureau and making maximum use of the land available on the site.
The meeting reviewed measures to complete CT Simulator facilities in order to expand radiotherapy services and cut waiting lists, and discussed the construction of bunkers for new Linear Accelerator (LINAC) machines to be supplied under an Asian Development Bank project. Officials also pressed for faster construction of clinical buildings, including a new paediatric ward complex.
Medicines and staff
On drug shortages, officials discussed strengthening coordination with the Medical Supplies Division to secure an uninterrupted supply of the essential medicines and surgical items needed by clinics and wards. Emergency procurement and other corrective measures were among the options considered.
Vacancies for medical officers, nursing officers, radiologists, pharmacists and health assistants are to be filled gradually under a planned programme run by the Ministry of Health and Mass Media. Some newly appointed health assistants are expected to be posted to the hospital after appointments scheduled for this weekend.
Air-conditioning, digitalisation, internet services and staff career issues were also raised.
Those attending included Additional Secretary (Development) K.P. Yogachandra, Additional Secretary (Engineering Services) Salinda Bandara, Deputy Director Generals H.M.N. Dinipriya Herath, U.A.S.H. Sisira Kumara, Dr. S.P.A.L. Ranaweera and A.B.W. Kumarasinghe, Senior Assistant Secretary (Development) Nimisha Nananayakkara and hospital Director Dr. Suranga Dolamulla.
Context
Apeksha Hospital is Sri Lanka’s National Cancer Institute and the country’s main referral centre for cancer treatment. The scale of the load it carries is the reason waiting lists matter: the National Cancer Control Programme reported this week that Sri Lanka records about 6,000 new breast cancer cases a year, and the Health Ministry last week received Rs. 120 million worth of donated laparoscopy equipment.
A commitment of this kind is a statement of intent rather than a completed project, and the test of it will be whether the radiotherapy waiting list shortens.
Not reported
The filing gives no costs, no timetable and no targets. It does not say when the master plan is due, when the CT Simulator or the LINAC bunkers will be finished, how many LINAC machines the ADB project will provide, or what the current radiotherapy waiting list is.
It does not quantify the staff vacancies, say how many health assistants will be posted to Apeksha, or name which medicines are in short supply. No patient, consultant or trade union at the hospital is quoted, and the location of the planned paediatric ward complex is rendered in the report in a form this desk could not verify, so it is not reproduced here.
No other verified newsroom has filed on this meeting. This desk searched Hiru News, NewsFirst, Ada Derana, EconomyNext, the Island, Daily News, News.lk and Colombo Gazette and found no corresponding report; the account rests on the Daily Mirror alone.
Source: Daily Mirror.
