The Colombo National Hospital alone has nearly five thousand (5,000) patients on the waiting list for heart surgery, and the expected date for the surgery of these patients is extended to a long period of four (4) years, according to the Chairman of the Doctors’ Trade Union Alliance for Medical and Civil Rights, Specialist Dr. Chamal Sanjeewa.
In addition to the Colombo National Hospital, it is reported that there are thousands of other patients on the waiting lists for heart surgery in several hospitals in the island, including Kandy, Karapitiya, Batticaloa, and Anuradhapura, that perform heart surgeries.
This revelation was made by Specialist Dr. Chamal Sanjeewa based on data obtained from the Colombo National Hospital under the Right to Information Act (RTI). The number of patients on the waiting lists of the five (5) cardiac surgery wards of the Colombo National Hospital is reported to be 600, 756, 2400, 400 and 761 respectively, and he points out that the maximum expected duration of surgery for these patients is four years.
He emphasizes that since a surgery in the private sector costs at least two million rupees (Rs. 2,000,000), the probability of these patients dying when the day of surgery in the public sector arrives is very high.
He states that this time, it has failed to allocate special benefits for these patients either from the budget or from the President’s Fund.
He urges the government to immediately implement the promise made to encourage the program to provide benefits to patients who require these special surgeries from the President’s Fund as soon as the government comes to power.
Specialist Dr. Chamal Sanjeewa points out that although the current government has proposed to construct a sixteen (16) storey building for heart surgeries at the Colombo National Hospital, it is not practical to allocate only a small amount of two hundred million rupees (Rs. 200,000,000) for the initial works.