Cabinet approves district health coordinators

• MPs appointed for all districts

The Cabinet of Ministers has approved a proposal to appoint a group of Members of Parliament as District Coordination Officers covering all districts in the country with the aim of strengthening coordination in the health sector. The relevant Cabinet paper had been submitted by the Minister of Health and Mass Media Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa.

The move is aimed at bringing preventive and treatment services closer to the people more efficiently, minimising shortcomings in the health system and ensuring the effective deployment of resources according to priorities.

The Health Ministry stated that the primary objective of the step is to develop more efficient preventive and treatment services by overcoming the existing coordination weaknesses between the central Government and health institutions controlled by Provincial Councils.

The Ministry noted that the previous system had led to practical difficulties in properly identifying regional health problems and incorporating them into national plans.

Accordingly, the proposed responsibilities of the District Coordination Officers include identifying district-level health needs and prioritising them with public participation, integrating those needs with national and provincial health plans, strengthening coordination between line and provincial health institutions, coordinating regional development plans in line with Ministry policies, identifying priority projects and recommending them to the Ministry, and monitoring the progress of ongoing projects to ensure their successful completion within the stipulated time frame.

Although health services are provided to a wide population through the existing structure, problems such as lack of coordination at district level, inefficient use of resources and inadequate reflection of regional needs in national plans have been observed due to the separate functioning of line and provincial administrative systems, Dr. Jayatissa had said in the Cabinet paper. 

He had further pointed out that regional health problems were not being adequately identified and resolved due to limited public participation. Accordingly, the following MPs have been nominated as District Coordinating Officers for the relevant districts:

Anuradhapura - Susantha Kumara Navaratne, Badulla - Ravindra Bandara, Batticaloa - Kandasamy Prabhu, Colombo - Dr. Najith Indika, Digamadulla/Ampara - M.M. Sugath Ratnayake, Galle - Dr. Nishantha Samaraweera, Gampaha - Dharmapriya Wijesinghe, Hambantota - Dr. Sadaruwan Madarasinghe, Jaffna - Dr. S. Sri Bhavanandaraja, Kegalle - R.M. Samantha Ranasinghe, Kalutara - Dr. Nihal Abeysinghe, Kandy - Thanura Dissanayake, Kurunegala - Dr. Jagath Gunawardena, Matale - Deepthi Niranjani Wasalage, Matara - Lal Premanath, Monaragala - H.M. Sarath Kumara, Nuwara Eliya - T. Manjula Suraweerarachchi, Polonnaruwa - Padmasiri Bandara, Puttalam - Gayan Janaka, Ratnapura - Dr. Janaka Senaratne, Trincomalee - Roshan Akmeemana and Wanni - Selwathambi Thilakanathan.

Source - The Morning