Singapore to train 210 Sri Lankan healthcare officials

Friday, 5 July 2013 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By Uditha Jayasinghe Singapore yesterday kicked off a three-year programme to train Sri Lankan 210 healthcare professionals, which is expected to exponentially increase medical services in the island. Carried out by the Singapore International Foundation (SIF) and Temasek Foundation, the programme is funded by the latter with a grant of 385,130 Singaporean dollars as well as contributions by other partners.

It will be designed, customised and implemented by 16 specialist volunteers from the National University of Singapore, a tertiary hospital and the principal teaching hospital for National University Hospital (NUH) and SingHealth the largest healthcare group in Singapore. “The Singapore specialists will train 210 medical, nursing and allied health educators and practitioners from Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Health and University of Colombo. The key thrust of the programme is to enhance the knowledge, resources and confidence of these health educators and practitioners and to drive national level education,” said SIF Governor K. Kesavapany. Once the 250 professionals are trained they in turn will pass on their knowledge to another 250 people resulting in a trickledown effect. The organisers hope that the training programme will become self-sustainable and will be continued after 2016. SIF projects have been in the areas of education, social work and post-disaster rehabilitation work following the 2004 tsunami. Most recently, SIF partnered with the Jaffna Public Library to enhance the services of its children’s section though physical remodelling and training of a librarian.