No state hospital should be closed and all state hospitals should function 24 hours a day, Health Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne said.
Minister Senaratne instructed health officials of the Health Ministry and Provincial Heath Ministries to provide doctors for all state hospitals without any difference. A total of 1200 new Post Intern Appointments to be given for doctors in next month. He made these statements during the Provincial Health Ministers' Summit in Colombo today.
Minister Senaratne pointed out that the anomaly of distributing doctors among Provincial, General and Teaching hospitals should be addressed as soon as possible.
The minister also instructed officials to formulate a vacancy list of all hospitals in order to provide doctors for all state hospitals in the country.
Meanwhile doctors and Provincial health authorities revealed that the allowance paid for doctors to pay their mobile telephone bills had cut down from Rs. 4000 to Rs. 2500 and Minister Senaratne promised to solve the issue after discussing with the Treasury.