4.1 Physical resources

4.1 Physical resources

This chapter describes the physical and human resources in the allopathic system of medicine in Sri Lanka.12

4.1.1 Capital stock and investments The state curative facilities are organized into a tiered structure, each providing a defined level of care. They range from teaching hospitals linked to universities that have super specialties, provincial, district, general and base hospitals with selected specialties, to divisional hospitals (outpatient care and inward care) manned by non-specialist doctors, and primary medical care units offering only outpatient care. There are also a few specialized hospitals that serve as centres of excellence in the system. In 2017, the total number of hospital beds in the state sector curative facilities stood at 83 275 (Ministry of Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine, 2018a; Ministry of Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine, 2019b). The numbers and bed strength according to different types of state hospitals as of 2016 are presented in Table 4.1.

Table 4.1 Distribution of state hospitals by category of institution and bed strength

Category of institution Number of hospitals Bed strength

Tertiary care Teaching hospital 16 Provincial general hospital 3 District general hospital 19 Subtotal

38

20 310 5 076 12 080

37 466

Secondary care

Base hospital – Type A 24 Base hospital – Type B 50 Subtotal

74

Primary care Divisional hospital – Type A 50 Divisional hospital – Type B 134 Divisional hospital – Type C 296 PMCU with maternity beds 11 Subtotal

491

8 891 8 960

17 851

5 345 9 076 7 901 145

22 467

Other hospitals Total 25

628

5 491

83 275

PMCU: primary medical care unit Source: Ministry of Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine, 2019b

12 Although contemporary Sri Lanka has a pluralistic health system, the allopathic system caters to the majority of the population. As stated in Chapter 2, this publication is mainly on the allopathic system.