Responsibilities of the Curative Care Unit at the Office of the Provincial Director of Health Services
- Planning of Curative Healthcare Services (long term and short term)
- Monitoring of curative Health activities
- Maintaining a database on private hospitals and nursing homes
- Provision of technical support for special events and activities (e.g.: development of curative health services in estates, establishing Emergency Treatment Units, upgrading of hospitals and services)
- Conducting surveys and operational research
- Coordinating with technical units of the MOH and other departments to ensure implementation of curative care projects.
- Provision of technical support to facilitate planning , monitoring and evaluation of curative health programmes
Curative care to the people of the province is given by:
- Government Health Sector
- Private Health Sector
01 Government Health Sector
The network of curative care institutions ranges from sophisticated teaching hospitals with specialized consultative services to small central dispensaries, which provide only out patient services. The distinction between hospitals is basically made on the size and the range of facilities. There are three levels of curative care institutions.
- Primary Care Institutions
- Divisional Hospitals (DH) (This category includes district hospitals, peripheral hospitals and rural hospitals which were separately considered in the former classification)
- Primary Medical Care Units (PMCU) (Previously Central Dispensaries and Maternity Wards)
- Secondary Care Institutions
- District General Hospitals (DGH)
- District Base Hospitals (DBH)
- Tertiary Care Institutions
- Teaching Hospitals (TH)
- Provincial Hospitals (PH)
Curative care institutions in the Central Province include:
- 153 primary care institutions
- 7 secondary care institutions
- 3 tertiary care institutions and
- 17 specialized institutions
Of these, five secondary care institutions, all primary care institutions and all specialized institutions come under Central Provincial Health Department.
Primary care services
Primary care services to the people in Central Province are delivered through Divisional Hospitals (DH) and Primary Medical Care Units (PMCU). In central province the total number of Primary care institutes stands at 153 as of 2008.
The Divisional hospitals provide both outpatient and inpatient care including the provision of basic health facilities for the treatment of minor ailments, referral to secondary and tertiary care institutions for further treatment, provision of perinatal care and follow up of patients referred from secondary or tertiary care institutions. On the other hand Primary Care Units concentrate on outpatient services.
Secondary Care Services
Secondary care institutions consist of the four common specialties, Medicine Surgery, Paediatrics, Obstetrics & Gynaecology and other specialties such as Eye, ENT and Dermatology. Essential back up services are available at these institutions including laboratory services and basic radiological services. The laboratory services consist of basic biochemical, haematological, bacterial and histopathological investigations.
Seven secondary care institutions provide specialized services to the people in the Province. Of these, two hospitals (DGH Nuwaraeliya and DBH Gampola) are managed by line ministry while the rest come under the administration of the Central Province Health Department. Those are DGH Matale, DGH Nawalapitiya, DBH Dambulla, DBH Dickoya, and DBH Rikillagaskada. The latter two were upgraded to secondary care units in 2007.
Two other hospitals (DH Teldeniya and DH Hettipola) have also been proposed to be upgraded to District Base Hospital status. These hospitals are currently considered as divisional hospitals.
In addition to curative care services, secondary healthcare institutes provide special preventive care activities such as Anti-rabies and Ant-tetanus vaccination. Around 17,743 Anti-rabies vaccines and 8,094 Anti-tetanus vaccines have been issued by three provincially managed secondary care hospitals in 2008.
Tertiary care services
There are three institutions (TH Kandy and TH Peradeniya & Srimawo Bandaranaike Children’s Hospital, Peradeniya) providing specialized tertiary care services to the people in the Central Province. All three are managed by the line ministry.
02 Private Health Sector
A parallel health care is provided by 17 private hospitals based in the urban areas of the province. Additionally there are 4 medical specialists, 47 general practitioners and 4 dental surgeons providing full time care in the private sector with 4 medical specialists, 179 general practitioners and 10 dental surgeons registered for the same on a part time basis. Complementing these services are 14 medical centres and 31 private medical laboratories within the province.
The private health sector is administered by the Private Health Regulatory Council.
