A total of 2,712 children are on the surgical waiting list at Lady Ridgeway Hospital for Children in Colombo, with 1,025 awaiting cardiothoracic procedures, Deputy Health Minister Hansaka Wijemuni told Parliament on Tuesday.
Wijemuni disclosed the figures in response to a question from MP Rohini Wijerathne, providing a procedure-by-procedure breakdown of cases pending at the country’s largest paediatric tertiary-care institution.
Alongside the 1,025 cardiothoracic cases, 593 children are waiting for general surgery, 388 for eye surgery, 266 for ENT procedures, 240 for plastic surgery, 133 for spinal surgery, 48 for orthopaedic surgery and 19 for neurosurgery. The Deputy Minister did not provide an average waiting time or outline a timeline for clearing the backlog.
The figures land at a difficult moment for the state health system. Government hospitals are still absorbing the effects of the nine-day Government Medical Officers’ Association strike, which suspended routine outpatient services and elective procedures before being paused on April 6 pending talks with Health Minister Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa on April 9. Doctors have separately warned of post-strike discharge delays at major hospitals as consultants work through accumulated files.
Lady Ridgeway, built in 1895 and now the only specialist paediatric hospital in the country, handles a national caseload that routinely exceeds its theatre and ward capacity. The Ministry of Health has made no separate statement on the waiting list since the parliamentary disclosure, and Wijemuni did not indicate whether additional funding, overseas partnerships or expanded theatre time were being considered to clear the paediatric backlog.
