THAMBUTTEGAMA BASE HOSPITAL ENTERS DIGITAL ERA WITH ADB FUNDING

Patients at the Thambuttegama Base Hospital are in the process of adjusting to a new health system, which would allow them to obtain medical services in a couple of minutes in future.

- By Kamanthi Wickramasinghe

Patients being registered to the new health system

(M.A.Pushpakumara)

This initiative, under the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) Health System Enhancement Project (HSEP), launched by the Health Ministry, aims to transform Sri Lanka's primary healthcare sector by improving infrastructure, service delivery and health information systems. One of its pilot projects is the development of a Shared Care Cluster Model aimed at integrating primary, secondary and tertiary care services within defined geographic clusters. Recently, the Daily Mirror, along with other media, visited the Thambuttegama Base Hospital to observe how the Shared Care Cluster Model operates.

The Shared Care Cluster system is linked to a specialised care hospital. Therefore, other primary healthcare institutions can now link with the apex hospital. Through this link, specialists working at the main hospital could share information with doctors from rural hospitals and provide necessary care to patients. With the development of the new health information system under this project, doctors could share information thereby reducing overcrowding at the main hospital and making access to primary healthcare more affordable and convenient for patients.