{"id":100652,"date":"2020-04-02T15:52:56","date_gmt":"2020-04-02T22:52:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=100652"},"modified":"2020-04-02T15:52:56","modified_gmt":"2020-04-02T22:52:56","slug":"economics-welfare-systems-balance-of-payments-and-other-bovine-excreta-an-open-letter-to-the-people-of-the-resplendent-isle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/04\/02\/economics-welfare-systems-balance-of-payments-and-other-bovine-excreta-an-open-letter-to-the-people-of-the-resplendent-isle\/","title":{"rendered":"Economics, Welfare Systems, Balance of Payments and other Bovine Excreta \u2013 an Open Letter to the People of the Resplendent Isle."},"content":{"rendered":"

Sakuntala Seneviratne MBBS MD FSLCOG Consultant Gynaecologist and Obstetrician<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

When\nthe WHO says spend 6% of your GDP on health you said we are doing just fine on\n3%\u201d and gave yourselves a pat on the back didn\u2019t you? You didn\u2019t hear us when\nwe said the curative arm lags far behind a 75-year-old preventative system. We\nsaid that blood and sweat and tears can only get you so far. What will you do\nwith your awards now? Shall we place them next to the monuments of the dead? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When\nwe said that health care is crucial to the state and needs to be centralised\nyou laughed and waved a constitution at us. An amendment imposed at gunpoint\nand widely rejected. And as per that amendment health is on the reserved list. So\ndoctor\u2019s appointments are controlled by the central government and everything\nelse\u201d by the Provincial government. So we have no equity of distribution of\nresources and of all non-medical staff. And poorer people are just going to die\nnow. But perhaps not the people they voted for. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scientists\nand Doctors have told you countless times that smoking kills. That Alcohol\ndestroys lives. But you needed the money these businesses bring in. Well. You\nhad your money. Look where it got you. How many people need to die because of\nthe vulnerability brought on by substance abuse before you recognise it for\nwhat it is? Did you really need the link of Covid 19 deaths to smoking as the\nicing on your cake to prove the point? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So\nwhen we thought that new buildings were needed for new hospitals you barely\nlistened. You built Hotels instead because the country needed revenue. And\nindustry would generate income and later – someday – with that revenue maybe\nyou would build. And we are not economists so we backed away. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When\nyou were<\/em>\nreluctantly persuaded to design and build: you didn\u2019t put in lifts. You put in\nnarrow corridors; you put in tiny cubicles without showers as changing rooms; you\nhad unacceptable spaces as scrub rooms. So now when we have to have a one-way\nsystem with negative pressure, a donning room, a scrub room, the operating and\nresuscitating space, a doffing room and a clean room we don\u2019t. We just make do.\nAs we have always done. We catch an infection. That if it doesn\u2019t kill us, at\nbest makes us too ill to work, to save you and your families lives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\nhired the best architects in the world and created aesthetically appealing\nspaces for the hotels and the exhibition centres and the malls didn\u2019t you? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When\nwe told you that the textbooks from 30 years ago say cotton scrubs cover your\nnakedness only\u201d you laughed and said again this is the third world and just\ngive them some extra antibiotics\u201d. So now our population has generalised\nresistance. And the healthcare staff have no appropriate protective equipment.\nNo supply chains to get these. No local manufacture. And no organised system\nfor the disposal of hazardous waste. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When\nwe thought the measly buildings you did put up should have sensor activated\ntaps, sensor activated doors hand wash, hand rub, disposable hand wipes you\nlaughed and told us again this is the third world Doctor this is Sri Lanka!\u201d\nAnd now we touch the door handles, the taps, the top of the soap dispensers, and\nthe little sliver of soap in the dish. We dry our hands on oft-used pieces of cotton\ncloth. Our hands are cracked and dry and microbes grow on our broken skin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But\nthe Hotels needed all these thing; the malls needed all these things because\nit\u2019s economically sound. And well, we were told we are just doctors, and we\nshould just learn to work with what we have. Until later maybe you would\nconsider improving facilities in the health care system. Some of us who didn\u2019t\nthink what you were doing was right walked away to other places where they did\nprioritise these. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\nwatched while they walked. You watched while the handpicked few, for qualities\nlike hard work, intelligence and resilience, who you trained in a highly\nspecialised technical, academic and professional sphere walked away to places\nwhere working 56 hours a week would pay you enough to buy a home, a car. Where\nthe tax that was paid would ensure a lifetime of reliable healthcare. Of decent\nschooling and university education for kids \n– even if they weren\u2019t the top 1%. We didn\u2019t walk away for luxuries. We\nwalked away because we wanted to not <\/strong>do\ntwo jobs. We wanted time for our loved ones; time to sleep, to laugh. We wanted\nbalance and yet to achieve these basics. And so you lost some of the cream of\nyour crop. You lost those who didn\u2019t inherit wealth. You lost some of your\nhardworking dreamers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And\nyou, the patriotic\u201d ones, who stayed, changed the countries wealth into\nforeign currency to pay for those same things for your children. It was easier\nthan developing it internally. And frankly do you even know how? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because\nyou also failed to bring down a system that ensured our qualifications, our\ntraining, is recognised and appreciated on four continents across the globe.\nYou failed to destroy a training system, where we mandatorily were exposed to\nthe way, smarter countries prioritised spending on health. So we know how it\nshould be. But having done that, you handed over the conditions that we work in\nat home, to administrators who have no comparable skills. No training beyond\nthe local. Who are blinkered by the politicians who they have to stooge to. You\nallowed the systems to be run according to the whims of corrupt, unqualified,\nheartless, self serving, shameless men and women who used politics as the\nshortest route to material wealth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So\nnow we are a nation that\u2019s mortgaged it\u2019s future. Having spent on vulnerable\nindustries that cannot reliably generate income. We have insufficient home grown\nfood. So here we are in debt. Poor. Hungry. And soon we are going to be sick.\nOr dead. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next\ntime, people of the Resplendent Isle – can you get your priorities right? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m\nnot angry. I\u2019m not saying I told you so. I\u2019m just sad. Even if I survive I may have\nto watch you die.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sakuntala Seneviratne MBBS MD FSLCOG<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consultant Gynaecologist and Obstetrician<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sakuntala Seneviratne MBBS MD FSLCOG Consultant Gynaecologist and Obstetrician When the WHO says spend 6% of your GDP on health you said we are doing just fine on 3%\u201d and gave yourselves a pat on the back didn\u2019t you? You didn\u2019t hear us when we said the curative arm lags far behind a 75-year-old preventative […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100652\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}