(LANKAPUVATH | COLOMBO) – Health Minister Dr. Keheliya Rambukwella says that managing the most challenging period in the health sector, it is currently being brought to a more positive place.
The Minister points out that many activities including lowering the price and reducing the shortage of medicines can be brought to a positive situation by about 90 percent in the next two months.
The Minister made these remarks when he chaired the Tumpane Regional Coordination Committee meeting. In addition to this, the Kundasala Regional Coordination Committee meeting was also held on that day, where many issues, problems and proposals related to the regional secretariat divisions were discussed.
The minister said that the legal work required to reduce the price of medicine by 16% from the 15th June is currently underway and in addition to that, the price of medicines will be reviewed every 3 months and every necessary step will be taken to reduce the prices.
The Minister said 406 more doctors will be sent for internship training before the 27th to further strengthen the medical service in this country and steps will be taken to recruit 2200 for the nursing service by the next month.
In addition, he said that 222 family health service officers were recently appointed and about 600 more officers will be trained and added to the service.
The Minister also said that by August or September, the health service will be in a positive state so that the people can have high expectations.
Dengue control programs in Kandy district was discussed at the meeting and it was mentioned that the dengue condition has not yet progressed to epidemic status in the district. It was also revealed that the incidence of dengue among children in the island as a whole is about 40% and in the province it is about 20%.
The Minister of Health also pointed out that more dengue mosquito larvae are found in government buidings, so more attention should be paid to it.
Health minister said In order to protect school children from dengue, steps will be taken to strengthen awareness programs and eradicating mosquito breeding places.
The attention of the Minister of Health was also drawn to several matters including, progress in food security and nutrition programs in 2023; progress in programs to meet nutritional needs of focus groups; progress of the program to measure the height and weight of all children below 05 years of age in conjunction with the Nutrition Month and obtain related data; child malnutrition, measures taken to improve the nutritional status of children; steps taken to improve nutrition and nutritional status of pregnant mothers, and dengue mosquito control activities.
Also, discussions were held here focusing on examining the progress of development programs and institutions in Kundasale and Tumpane divisional secretariats, progress of Saubhagya production villages, identification of 100 projects for economic empowerment of poor and low-income families, as well as its progress, short-term, medium-term and long-term development programs to be implemented in the future.
