The 2027 Budget sets a total capital allocation of Rs 131 billion for public health services, and within it funds a robotic surgery training centre at Ragama, preliminary planning for nine hospital projects and a programme to eliminate dog-mediated rabies by 2030.
The Rs 131 billion covers both Central Government and Provincial Council health services, the Daily Mirror reported. President Anura Kumara Dissanayake set out the health proposals while presenting the Budget on Thursday.
Hospital development: Rs 510 million to plan, not to build
The Budget allocates Rs 510 million in 2027 for feasibility studies and preliminary designs — not construction — across a list of identified hospital projects, Hiru News reported:
- re-establishing Matara District General Hospital at Kotawila, Kamburugamuwa
- Kurunegala, Kalubowila and Kuliyapitiya teaching hospitals
- Trincomalee Siddha Medical Teaching Hospital
- Monaragala and Polonnaruwa District General Hospitals
- the National Institute of Infectious Diseases
- Gampola Base Hospital
The same Rs 510 million also covers feasibility work on staff accommodation at hospitals and on regional drug stores.
Separately, Thambuttegama Base Hospital receives Rs 300 million to develop a modern accident and emergency treatment unit.
Robotic surgery at Ragama
A specialist centre to train doctors in robotic surgery is to be established within the Faculty of Medicine, Ragama, with Rs 250 million allocated. Training is to be delivered in collaboration with foreign universities.
Both newsrooms carry the measure and the figure matches exactly: the Daily Mirror’s spending breakdown lists “Robotic surgery training Rs. 250 mn” among five new health proposals, and its summary notes the government “plans to introduce robotic technology for surgical procedures.”
A rabies-free Sri Lanka by 2030
The Budget funds a programme titled “A Sri Lanka free of rabies by 2030”, aimed at eliminating dog-mediated rabies. It is to make dog vaccination and sterilisation programmes more efficient, and will be run jointly by the Ministry of Health and Mass Media, the Department of Animal Production and Health and local government authorities.
Sri Lanka has run large-scale canine vaccination drives for years; this desk reported in September on a record number of dogs vaccinated in a single campaign.
Arogya wellness centres
The government plans to establish 1,000 Arogya Wellness Centres between 2027 and 2029 at a total investment of Rs 17,440 million, with Rs 3,600 million allocated for 2027, the Daily Mirror reported. The network was launched in August and is intended to bring primary care closer to communities with limited hospital access.
Equipment
Rs 5,000 million goes to medical equipment, including MRI scanners, CT scanners and other specialised diagnostic equipment.
Two further health lines are covered separately by this desk: Rs 3 billion to replace ambulances more than 20 years old, and the increase in doctors’ DAT allowance from Rs 70,000 to Rs 95,000, reported with the rest of the public sector pay package.
Sourcing note
Two verified newsrooms have filed. The Rs 250 million robotic surgery figure appears independently in both and agrees exactly. The hospital list, the Rs 510 million planning allocation and the rabies programme come from Hiru News alone; the Rs 131 billion capital total, the Arogya costings, the Thambuttegama unit and the equipment line come from the Daily Mirror alone. Neither contradicts the other.
Not reported
Neither filing says when any of the nine hospital projects would move from planning to construction, or what they are expected to cost. Neither gives a timeline for the robotic surgery centre, names the foreign universities involved, or says how many surgeons it would train. The rabies programme carries no allocation figure in either filing and no baseline for current case numbers.
