Cardiac Catheterisation Laboratories will be established island wide: Health Minister

 

We are now in the process of equipping and establishing Cardiac Catheterisation Laboratories in every Province to minimize patients’ expenses and to reduce the waiting period for surgeries, Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne said.

He said this while addressing the Sri Lanka Heart Association’s 17th Annual Academic Sessions held in Colombo recently.

According to Minister Senaratne, the Health Ministry has allocated a fairly large percentage from the Health Ministry budget worth Rs.85 billion to provide free services for interventional, surgical and medical management for cardiac patients in Sri Lanka.

Minister Senaratne pointed out that Government’s multifaceted efforts to fight non-communicable diseases or “life style diseases”, such as setting up healthy life style centers island wide, introducing the traffic light indication to control sugar, salt and trans-fats, restricting tobacco/ alcohol marketing etc. will help to mitigate this trend.

Today, Cardiology Services are widely available in all major hospitals in the country as a result of the appointment of consultant cardiologists not only to all tertiary care units, but also to almost all provincial and district General Hospitals as well, he said.

We are also now in the process of revising the procurement procedures to ensure a continuous supply of stents, balloons, catheters etc. to ensure smooth running of the newly setup chain of Cath labs.

It is also my wish to upgrade the national cardiology unit at NHSL to a state of the art regional center of excellence, so that we can use the expert knowledge of our well qualified cardiologists in interventions and surgeries for the benefit of our people, the Minister said.

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