Two cancer radiotherapy machines installed at the Badulla and Hambantota hospitals are ready to treat patients but have not been switched on, held up by the absence of dosimetry equipment, the Government Radiographers’ Association says.
The association told the Daily Mirror that both machines could begin treating patients now, and that services have been delayed solely over the missing equipment.
Six months and one month
Installation of the Badulla machine was completed in April. The Hambantota installation was completed in the first week of October. Neither hospital has started treatment — six months after the first was ready, and a month after the second.
The two are among five Linear Accelerator (LINAC) machines procured for government hospitals after years of delay, at a cost of more than Rs. 600 million each. Establishing a complete radiotherapy unit at each hospital is estimated to cost over Rs. 1 billion.
A remedy the association says already exists
The association’s central claim is that the hold-up is avoidable. It said the dosimetry equipment needed to commission the machines could be borrowed temporarily from the National Cancer Institute at Maharagama (Apeksha Hospital), allowing treatment to begin without waiting for new equipment to be purchased.
It said Deputy Health Minister Dr Hansaka Wijemuni had instructed officials during a recent visit to Badulla Hospital to obtain the equipment from Apeksha and begin services urgently, but that the arrangements have still not been made. Similar temporary arrangements have been used before to activate LINAC machines at other hospitals, the association said.
Where patients are going instead
With Badulla and Hambantota idle, LINAC radiotherapy in the state system remains available only at Apeksha Hospital, Kandy National Hospital, Galle National Hospital, Jaffna Teaching Hospital and Batticaloa Teaching Hospital.
Waiting lists at Apeksha and Kandy already run to several months, the association said, and patients from the Badulla and Hambantota catchments are being pushed onto those lists. Those who cannot wait face private treatment costing between Rs. 500,000 and Rs. 2 million.
A procurement already under scrutiny
The idle machines are a separate problem from, but adjacent to, allegations already raised over how Sri Lanka buys this equipment. Consultant physician Dr Chamal Sanjeewa has called for an investigation into the tender for LINAC machines for Apeksha and Galle National Hospital, alleging that medical physicists expected to sit on the evaluation committees attended a supplier-sponsored event nine days before the tenders opened, and has separately questioned a proposal to buy a model around 17 years old.
State cancer services have also been disrupted by equipment failures, including a CT simulator breakdown at Apeksha.
Not reported
No response from the Health Ministry, the Deputy Health Minister or either hospital had been reported at the time of writing, and the filing does not say why the dosimetry equipment has not been transferred from Apeksha, or whether new equipment has been ordered and when it is expected. It does not identify the supplier of the five machines, name the remaining three hospitals in that batch, or say whether any of those three are also waiting.
This report rests on a single verified newsroom. No other outlet checked had published its own account of the Badulla and Hambantota machines at the time of writing. The Daily Mirror’s filing closes with a rhetorical question about ministerial accountability rather than a response from the ministry; that framing is the newspaper’s and is not reproduced as reporting here.
