Sri Lanka becoming a model and hub of development in Asia

Despite the hopes and boasts of Sri Lanka becoming a model and hub of development in Asia, the lack of a national health policy, a national policy on food and nutrition and a national medicinal and drugs policy among other health issues have made Sri Lanka a sick nation. Most of us are sick most of the time and hospitals are crowded like market places, though the richer people of the country have access to the marvelous methods of modern medicine. Earlier this month, a big international exhibition and sale of herbal medicines was held at the BMICH in Colombo. The wide range of relatively low cost herbal medicines displayed in more than 1,000 stalls, showed the vast scope of the ancient, time-tested healing process of Ayurveda and the need for Sri Lankans to make more use of it. Unfortunately in recent decades most of us have been conditioned or virtually forced to depend far too much on allopathy or Western medicine which to a large extent has degenerated from a vocation or a profession to a deadly business. That form of medicine is no doubt effective, but we need a national health policy whereby the roles of Ayurveda, Allopathy, Homeopathy and Acupuncture are outlined and the people are given a balanced awareness so that they could choose the form of treatment they need for a particular ailment. As for Ayurveda, we know the story of the Buddha and his physician Jeewaka. The physician had asked the Buddha whether there were any plants without medicinal value. The Buddha told him to go out and carry out a test and see. After weeks, the physician came back saying he could not find a single plant without medicinal value. With such a treasure around us it is so ridiculously tragic that we often go for counterfeit or counter productive chemical drugs at high prices.

July is almost coming to an end and Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena appears to have again broken his repeated promise that legislation for a National Medicinal Drugs Policy (NMDP) to provide quality drugs to all people at affordable prices would be presented in parliament by July. A comprehensive draft for this vital legislation was worked out after several rounds of discussion among all stake-holders and presented to the then Health Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva as far back as July 2005.

If the minister’s latest excuse is that he was far too busy with the polls campaign in July the people hope that he will have no excuse in August and act like a statesman in taking an important step, to give top priority to the restoration of the health service where the well-being of patients is given top priority.

Source:Daily Mirror Lanka