Laws to Regulate Private Hospitals – Rajitha

Minister of Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine Dr. Rajitha Senaratne,  when participating in the debate on the vote of the Ministry of Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine, during the Budget Select Committee stage in Parliament brought  glaring examples of how  private hospitals  exploiting the  public.  The minister, who said that in order to dress a wound, at a private hospital, a sum of Rs 14,000 was being charged and the private hospital bill of former Governor Alavi Moulana was Rs 9 million. Further a dead patient is admitted to the ICU for 45 minutes and a sum of four hundred thousand rupees is charged.

Officials of private hospitals were summoned for a discussion, he said. It is President J. R. Jayewardene was the one who initially began regulating prices.

This is a health service. Private health is a service and a business.

The minister added that the maximum charge in the country’s Channelled Medical Service was specified as Rs 2,000. He specified that a patient should be examined for 10 minutes and subsequent to a surgery, the surgeon should stay with the patient for an hour. All private hospitals will be regulated, the minister said.