We have created the golden era of the health services: President

Friday, 20 December 2013 00:05 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Fulfilling the promise made in the Mahinda Chinthanaya to sustain the free health services in the country, the Government has succeeded in creating a golden era for the health services. Stating this, President Mahinda Rajapaksa said that the Sri Lankan health indices are ahead of not only the other South Asian countries, but the whole of Asia too.

Speaking at a function to hand over appointment letters to a newly trained batch of 10,400 nurses and health attendants, President Rajapaksa said that the Government has succeeded in establishing an efficient, high quality health service during the last seven years. This was the largest ever recruitment in the health service. Altogether 6,500 trained nurses, 1,900 health officers and 2,000 other grades of health service recruits were given letters of appointment at the function. The President said that with the new recruits, the total number of health sector employees has doubled from the time his government came to power. “We have also established new hospitals covering all the areas in the country and the health allocation this year is Rs. 155 billion and it is a four-fold increase from the allocation in 2005,” he said. President of the Nurses Union Ven Muruttettuwe Ananda Thero, Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena, Health Secretary Nihal Jayasinghe and other officials and the parents of new recruits attended the function.