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Ailing hearts and the heartless
Friday, 25 May 2012 - 1:07 PM SL Time
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On Wednesday, our honourable lawmakers must have been dozing off behind their imposing desks in air-conditioned comfort after a heavy mid-day meal and high tea to boot when they were told what they may not have wanted to hear. Deputy Health Minister Lalith Dissanayake revealed, or rather admitted, in answer to a question from the Opposition benches that there were over 8,000 patients waitlisted for heart surgeries at government hospitals. Among them were 1,325 children, he said.
Politicians boast that Sri Lankans are blessed with a free health care system, but the fact remains that most state-run hospitals are in a state of decrepitude experiencing chronic shortages of vital drugs and equipment. Hardly a day passes without shortages or other problems at government hospitals being reported. Atop all these, they have to contend with strikes and trade union action of all sorts.
What has really made so many heart patients wait for their turns at government hospitals is lack of resources, both physical and human, stemming from a severe dearth of funds. The government shamelessly claims insolvency, so to speak, whenever questions are raised on the allocation of funds for health care and education, while splurging money on grandiose projects to boost political egos of the powers that be.
The government pays some privileged public officers` PAYE tax to the tune of about Rs. 2 billion a year, according to the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE). It was only the other day that Parliament was told that Rs. 3.5 billion had been spent on vehicles for some public officials. VIP chopper rides had cost the public purse over Rs. 200 million last year, the government admitted in Parliament in January.
The JVP claims that more than Rs. 21 billion is spent on the Deyata Kirula exhibition annually. It is common knowledge that the carnival takes the lion`s share of the funds the government allocates for the event with a generous hand on the pretext of doing development work. The UNP has accused the government of wasting millions of rupees on temporary toilets at that exhibition. The government had spent Rs. 30 million on a cultural show to mark the inauguration of the Hambantota inland harbour, Ports and Highways Minister Rohitha Abeygunawardena told Parliament in February. President Mahinda Rajapaksa`s mega dansela at Temple Trees during Vesak must have gobbled up millions of rupees. Who really footed the bill is not known. Meritorious as the act of feeding the hungry may be, most of those seen there were those who eat at danselas for the fun of it. If such grand events are scaled down/better targeted or scrapped, a great deal of funds could be saved and utilised for treating the sick who cannot afford the luxury of private health care and clearing long waiting lists of heart patients at government hospitals.
All national festivals are characterised by extravaganza and the blame for this state of affairs should be pinned on the general public. It is time community leaders and religious dignitaries made an intervention on behalf of the poor and the sick to call for an end to the mindless dissipation and profligacy that people disport themselves in, in the name of festivity. Religious events are no better. Of what use is the practice of illuminating houses, roads and public buildings or erecting giant thorana while poor patients are suffering and dying without treatment for want of funds?
The UNP is to be commended for posing a query on behalf of the poor heart patients and getting the Deputy Health Minister to reveal the shocking figures which, no doubt, did tear many a person`s heart out. Now, let the government be asked how it proposes to help those poor people, especially children.
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