MSF opens surgical programmes in North

JAFFNA: Medicins Sans Frontiers (MSF) has now returned to the North of Sri Lanka to open surgical programmes in Point Pedro, Mannar and Vavuniya.

MSF recently received clearance from the Defence Ministry and signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Health Ministry.

Since December 2 an MSF team returned to the Jaffna Peninsula to provide surgical support to the hospital in Point Pedro which serves 150,000 people.

The hospital, which was lacking a surgeon and anaesthetist, is no longer obliged to transfer all surgical cases to Jaffna hospital.

About 141 surgical interventions have been carried out together with the hospital staff since the team arrived in Point Pedro, a MSF release said.

On January 15 MSF started another surgical programme in Mannar district hospital in collaboration with the Health Ministry.

By January 23 MSF opened a third surgical support project in the Vavuniya town. Vavuniya hospital which serves 180,000 people had no qualified surgeon for five months.

In the first weeks of activity, 32 surgical interventions were carried out.