The Primary Care Community Centre project slated to begin shortly will establish one primary health care centre covering nearly 10,000 of the country’s population, Health and Mass Media Minister Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa said.
“Under the first phase, 2,000 centers are to be established throughout the country over the next three years. It is planned to establish 100 primary health care centers this year, marking the beginning of this programme and services are to be implemented with a staff of eight in each centre” the Minister said.
The Minister was speaking at a workshop for Public Health Nursing Officers (PHNOs), to raise awarness about the programme at Sri Lanka Foundation Auditorium, Colombo on Saturday.
The Minister said that this programme is an essential process to further elevate the efficiency of the health service in the country today.
The Minister pointed out that until now, the country’s focus has been on the development of secondary and tertiary hospitals, and that providing buildings with a few storeys for hospitals was politically more important than primary health development.
He said that in order to go further in the future, this new programme will be implemented over the next three years.
The Minister said that in the past, politicians wanted to bring big hospitals to their constituency and district and raise the standards of those hospitals. He added that the current government does not grade hospitals based on political expediency, but rather carries out these activities by giving priority to the needs of the people.
He also stated that the country needs about 2,000 primary care units and that the work related to this will be carried out within the next three years, and that efforts will be made to select only places that are familiar to the people, where people gather, and which are attractive to the public.
The centers are scheduled to implement a number of primary health services, including non-communicable diseases, basic surgical treatment, elderly rehabilitation, primary eye, oral, mental health, nutrition, alcohol rehabilitation and youth selective care chosen laboratory testing, and community empowerment.
