Spending my tax money

The garden in front of Ward 34 at the National Hospital

My uncle has chosen to have his bypass operation at the national hospital, and has secured a bed in Ward 34 and is being prepared for surgery.  I've been visiting him daily and I am really pleased to see the whole hospital looking clean and welcoming, the gardens beautifully landscaped and well maintained (see photo), the ward quite spic and span. At the end of visiting time, the corridor is mopped, and my uncle says the toilets are clean and in full working order!  There must be about 50 patients in Ward 34, including two young boys with holes in the heart. Think of the number of heart operations that must take place, and how many people are able to get a new lease of life, purely because of state health care? In the bed next to my uncle is a man from Madu, who was first admitted to the Mannar hospital, then transferred to Jaffna, and from Jaffna airlifted to Colombo.  All by the state health service.  He is hampered by the fact that he speaks no Sinhalese and requires other bilingual patients (or their visitors) to translate for him, which highlights the necessity for health personnel that can speak both Sinhala and Tamil.  But despite that, he is still getting a really good service.  I would like to see more of my tax money spent this way.






Comments

  1. Russ10 June 2012 at 21:17

    And here I am in the capital of a nation that likes to pride itself as the beacon of the world in every respect but with infant mortality rates and an overall health system that is on par with the poorest nations. I hope Sri Lanka does not imitate its reliance on insurance companies and its private sector mantra. There are some things best left to those who are not in it for profit - the government! (provided of course it puts in place mechanims that demand accountability). If this is the state of health service in Sri Lanka I am returning home to my motherland!
    Russ (Washington DC)

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  2. Anonymous11 June 2012 at 11:20

    It seems from everything that we read and hear, insurance companies are worse than the state in paying back Rs/USD that they extract from us. I'd go with the state any day.

    It seems that most times the glass of welfare services (eg. Health, education) in SL is more than half full. Pity that so many are preoccupied with the empty segment of the glass!!

    Thank you Pri for highlighting the positive in our society.

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  3. Priyanthi Fernando11 June 2012 at 17:06

    Thank you for the comments. State investment in both health and education has increased in monetary terms, but has gone down proportionately e.g. as a percentage of the GDP. So if we are to keep state involvement in what we think are two valuable services, we need to advocate for continued investment, particularly in the light of other forces that are promoting privatisation. Maybe if we become more conscious of the positives of the system we will be more likely to do that!

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