By N.U. Abdul Razzak Udayar
“A friend in need is a friend indeed.” Our closest neighbour, mighty India truly displayed the greatest gesture of her intimate friendship to Sri Lanka when a simple plea was made by the former non- cabinet Minister and the present Colombo district parliamentarian Dr. Harsha de Silva along with them Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe to the visiting Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi (in March 2015) for an effective and smooth Ambulance Service.
The brainchild of the ex -Minister Dr. Harsha became reality as the Prime Minister of India walked his talk by giving a worthy gift of health package in the form of an effective ambulance service to this nation as our hospitals had an acute shortage of ambulances.
Project of Landmark
The year 2016 was a landmark in the annals of the history of the Health Sector of this island as the Indian PM Narendra Modi readily offered India’s magnanimity by launching this popular health project, A Journey to Health/Wellness (Suwa Seriya Ambulance Service) with the grant of USD 7.6 million. Initially the hospitals of the Western and the Sabaragamuwa provinces were given the much-needed ambulances.
The project was methodically started with the fleet of 88 ambulances. Therefore, Sri Lanka owes a debt of gratitude to India as it has given further grant of 15.2 million of USD to get this project expanded throughout the country.
Quick Call 1990 Service
For the first time in the history of Sri Lanka, people are given the facility of calling for an ambulance under the 4 digitals 1990 to rush the victims of accidents and other critical patients in 2016 with this important Free Ambulance Service. Today, this scheme of Life Saver has completed 5 and half years saving the precious lives of thousands of patients of our mother land. There are over 300 ambulances that are at service covering all the provinces of Sri Lanka. Recently, the President Gotabaya Rajapaksa promised that 112 new vehicles would be added to this fleet.
Initials Obstacles
The journey of launching of the Suwa Seriya Ambulance Service was not smooth but bumpy as there were some oppositions from the GMOA as it had fears of violating the rules of our Health Service. Initially, the ambulances were not allowed to be parked in the premises of the hospitals. The Indian Government gave this great gift under one condition. It asked this project to be taken over by the Government of Sri Lanka once the project is properly given to our country. Today, we are the proud owners of this lifeline ambulance service that has got over 1400 members of the staff of whom 709 are health technicians.
The Ministry of Health has set up the Suwa Seriya Foundation, a semi-government, not-for-profit organization for smoothly running this free ambulance service. The emergency medical technicians are given the training at the GVK EMRI in Hyderabad, India.
The good news is that all these technical personnel will get refreshers in India to enhance their services to the nation. All the staff of this Essential Service dedicatedly work round the clock to provide their best service to save thousands of precious lives in this beloved island.
This ambulance service has given its biggest contribution during the peak period of the COVID-19 as the affected were quickly rushed to the hospitals for quick medication and treatment. India has given us another gift that is 60,000 houses for the plantation workers of the up country who indefatigably work to get our foreign exchange. This gigantic project of USD 400 million clearly reflects that India is our bosom friend that always lends a helping hand to ensure the rapid march of Sri Lanka towards prosperity with unity under diversity.
