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Heeding the cry for medical assistance

The increasing calls for financial assistance for the treatment of numerous ailments raised by the needy, in our columns, point to the growing incapacity of the ordinary people to meet their medical expenses. This is the message put across by the frequent photographs of patients and accompanying write-ups for succour, in the national dailies. The poor are the worst hit by rising living costs and next to meeting their food bills it is their medical bills which are proving most unnerving for the ordinary citizenry.

There was a time when we took immense pride in our State-run medical facilities. The proud boast of politicians of yore was that no man, woman or child ever died of hunger or thirst in Sri Lanka. This was mainly because a wide-ranging welfare system was put in place in the immediate post-independence years. Besides providing the needy with the bare necessities of life, such as rationed rice, the welfare state which was Sri Lanka, ensured that these sections of society also had free access to State-run hospitals and schools - two essentials for wholesome living.

We have come a long way from those times. Today, the joke doing the rounds is that the "cost of dying" is as staggering as the cost of living. Rising medical expenses constitute the bulk of "cost of dying".

Of course, the system of State-run hospitals continues to exist and is open to the needy. However, for reasons which are not apparent, some medical needs cannot be satisfied easily at these State-run hospitals. Time and again, some prescribed medicines have to be bought by patients at pharmacies located outside government hospitals. Needless to say, these drugs are costly and prove unaffordable, except for the wealthy. Besides, there are long waiting lists at these hospitals, for surgical operations, such as those pertaining to heart ailments. It goes without saying that those who cannot afford to patronise private hospitals, in these circumstances, have to plead with the public for funds.

There are numerous occasions when the State has gone to the assistance of exceedingly needy patients, but such help has to be rendered on a more systematic basis, if lives are to be saved and the poor are to receive timely medical attention.

We suggest that a special fund be established by the State to help these needy patients. Rather than make the poor dependent on charity which may not be channelled to them regularly or in sustained fashion, it would be more advisable to establish a medical fund to which, private individuals, enterprises and organisations, could be induced into contributing regularly. Perhaps, a nominal compulsory payment may be obtained from the wealthier sections to meet the medical needs of their less fortunate brethren.

• Editorial of  The Observer - 14.02.2002: The road to Jaffna
  

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