Ambulance crisis in Sri Lanka triggers election debate

Nation emerging from economic crisis faces crippling exodus of qualified professionals

- Rohini Mohan

Dr Yasuni Manikkege, who works in a Colombobased government hospital, discovered a painful truth about Sri Lanka's economy recently.

One night in early May, her 51-year-old neighbour fell in his bathroom. She rushed to give him cardiopulmonary resuscitation and dialled 1990, the government's free ambulance service.

Usually, the ambulance would have arrived in three minutes. But that day, none came for 30 minutes. The neighbour died.

Dr Manikkege later found out the Suwa Seriya ambulance service - a gift from neighbouring India in 2016 that the World Bank said is among the globe's most efficiently run - had been underfunded and short-staffed since Sri Lanka's economic crisis triggered a massive exodus of medical professionals.

Sri Lanka is only just emerging from its worst economic crisis in 2022 that caused hyperinflation and loss of livelihood as well as massive shortages of essential goods like food, fuel and medicines that the island nation could not afford to import. The economy shrank by 7.3 per cent that year.

The crisis-hit economy has since stabilised due to tough reforms prompted by an International Monetary Fund (IMF) rescue package of US$2.9 billion (S$3.9 billion) in 2023.

While food and medical shortages are not debilitating the country today, Sri Lanka faces a crippling exodus of its most qualified professionals. "The number of doctors, nurses and other medical staff leaving has not stopped. The inadequate salary is one reason, but it's also anxiety over uncertainty and a feeling of total hopelessness about the future," said Dr Manikkege.

Government officials estimate that 4,500 doctors have left the country in the past two years on "no-pay leave" of two to five years, driven by economic hardship and tax hikes. They may return, but without a real vacancy that occurs after a doctor quits, the government is unable to recruit new ones, thus leaving the healthcare system floundering.