UK jobs for Sri Lankan nurses

Sri Lankan nurses will be provided training at the British Council and found jobs in the UK, Health Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne said. Dr. Senaratne said arrangements have also been made to provide jobs for nurses in UKthrough a private nursing faculty.

A nursing faculty will be established in Sri Lanka at a cost of Rs. 12,500 million, the minister said after laying the foundation stone for a new medical and surgical ward complex to be built at Nagoda Hospital at a cost of Rs. 3,500 million. Minister Senaratne said Rs. 11,547 million is to be spent to develop the Nagoda General Hospital.

The Colombo National Hospital is to be fully developed with the assistance of the Chinese government. The project has already been launched. The Chinese Government will provide a drug quality assurance laboratory to Sri Lanka, he said.

No provincial hospital will be taken over by the central government hereafter and funds will be provided to them for development work. The state health sector will be developed using VAT received from the private sector. In another three years all Sri Lankan doctors will issue prescriptions only with generic names of drugs, the minister added.