Healthcare sector grows on demand

“More private medical colleges will mean that the doors will be thrown open for students to qualify and secure jobs in Sri Lanka as well as overseas,” says Ajith Tudawe, in an interview with leading business journal LMD.

Ajith Tudawe

In the January issue of LMD, which is published by Media Services – publisher of LIVING, THE LMD 50 and presenter of the weekly business programme for television BENCHMARK – the incumbent Chairman of Durdans Hospital elaborates on the reasons for the significant growth in the sector, both in terms of demand and supply.

“There has been a substantial increase in private general-practice clinics and laboratory facilities,” he observes, describing the progress made in health care in recent years. Tudawe claims that the increase in hospitals – and thereby, their competitiveness – could benefit patients, adding: “The entry of more players will fulfil the needs of the middle and upper middle-class segments of the population.”

“However”, he says, “to provide a better service, technology and competency levels of the human resources that are available will be key”. Nonetheless, Tudawe admits that Sri Lanka is still not fully equipped with proper advanced technology – but the private sector, he says, has already begun investing in this technology.

Speaking on the newly introduced e-channelling system, Tudawe is upbeat: “Average citizens should be able to access doctors via e-channelling in the next decade or so.”

As for medical students and their competency levels, Tudawe insists that “the standard of doctors produced by Sri Lankan medical schools is high”. And he believes that with the opening of private medical schools, the health-care sector’s human resources will improve, thereby advancing its prospects even further. But he admits that this can only be achieved with the aid of foreign collaboration.

Speaking at length on the topic of employees and employment in the health-care industry, Tudawe says there is a shortage of trained nurses. He discloses: “Major health-care players in Colombo operate their own training centres to provide academic instruction and in-house training for student nurses.”