By Sarah Hannan
The newly appointed State Minister for Primary Healthcare, Epidemiology, and Covid-19 Control Dr. Sudarshini Fernandopulle spoke to The Sunday Morning on the priority areas she would deal with when addressing the many challenges posed by Covid-19.
Following are her responses to our questions:
Your new portfolio comes at a very crucial time to the country, with the spread of Covid-19. What are the priority areas identified by you?
I am looking to improve rural healthcare services and boost the immunisation programmes that are currently present in the healthcare system. These are my main priorities, and I am looking to work with the experts in the fields, along with the Minister of Health.
I take this opportunity to give back to the country and its citizens, who invested their tax monies in turning me into a specialised doctor. As a politician, I am now able to also return the favour by looking at policy-level shortcomings, and address such issues at Parliament. I look forward to applying my 24 years of experience as a medical practitioner and my experience as a politician to address the primary healthcare issues that the country is currently facing.
How will you carry out the work that you have prioritised?
In the backdrop of the present Covid-19 pandemic, improving the quality of service in primary healthcare, epidemiology, and epidemic control is crucial. In keeping with the President’s “Visions of Prosperity” policy statement, I will look at developing the rural healthcare service, and initiate the necessary programmes to improve immunisation programmes and campaigns to ensure a safe and healthy community.
Moreover, I will be working closely with the National Operations Centre for Prevention of Covid-19 Outbreak and the taskforce that has been working tirelessly since March to bring the pandemic under control.
You have been in charge of the prisons in the country. There is unrest building each day over the Covid-19 situation in prisons and the preventive measures being taken. Now that you are handling Covid-19 prevention, how will you address this issue?
The unrest in several of the prisons that took place during the first wave of Covid-19, and then now during the second wave of Covid-19, needs to also be looked at in a more humane way. It is natural for anyone to feel scared and to get agitated if they are confined to a densely packed area, such as a prison, whilst a pandemic is fast spreading.
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State Minister for Primary Healthcare, Epidemiology, and Covid-19 Control Dr. Sudarshini Fernandopulle[/caption]
Overcrowding in prisons has been a longstanding issue; earlier last week, the capacity in all the prisons was reported at 28,000, in spaces where only 11,000 could be held. To adhere to the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Health, we also had to reacquire prisons that were closed, to move the inmates and maintain distance.
With the aggressive crackdown on the drug trade as of recently, there have been a record number of admissions of drug users. For instance, if a person was accosted with over 2 g of heroin, they are booked in as drug dealers, and not addicts/users. We have a bigger issue here, and I discussed with the Minister of Justice, Sri Lanka Police, and the Department of Prisons about reforming the current process, to look at referring drug addicts/users to rehabilitation centres, rather than imprisoning them.
As a preventive measure, all the new admissions were directed to Bogambara Prison, while some of the prisoners in remand custody, who were in Welikada Prison, were transferred to Mahara Prison in order to adhere to the health guidelines. The present situation had halted visitors from coming to see the inmates in prison, and moreover with court dates being pushed back due to the closure of courts, they were getting frustrated.
Temporary shelters were also being set up so inmates can be moved within the compound, without having to transfer them to other prisons. With the limited facilities available in the prisons, I believe they have taken all possible measures to ensure that the inmates’ health aspects are covered in terms of the Covid-19 preventive measures.
Out of the total capacity of inmates within the prison system, 73% are remand prisoners awaiting their trial dates. There were measures in place to reduce the amount of such prisoners by expediting their hearing dates.
A report was submitted to Ministry of Justice Secretary Attorney-at-Law Priyantha Mayadunne to expedite further legal action against 6,334 remand prisoners facing charges for possession of under 2 g of heroin and less than 5 kg of cannabis.
There were further delays caused by the backlog of reports from the Government Analyst’s Department on substances.
State Minister for Primary Healthcare, Epidemiology, and Covid-19 Control Dr. Sudarshini Fernandopulle[/caption]
Overcrowding in prisons has been a longstanding issue; earlier last week, the capacity in all the prisons was reported at 28,000, in spaces where only 11,000 could be held. To adhere to the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Health, we also had to reacquire prisons that were closed, to move the inmates and maintain distance.
With the aggressive crackdown on the drug trade as of recently, there have been a record number of admissions of drug users. For instance, if a person was accosted with over 2 g of heroin, they are booked in as drug dealers, and not addicts/users. We have a bigger issue here, and I discussed with the Minister of Justice, Sri Lanka Police, and the Department of Prisons about reforming the current process, to look at referring drug addicts/users to rehabilitation centres, rather than imprisoning them.
As a preventive measure, all the new admissions were directed to Bogambara Prison, while some of the prisoners in remand custody, who were in Welikada Prison, were transferred to Mahara Prison in order to adhere to the health guidelines. The present situation had halted visitors from coming to see the inmates in prison, and moreover with court dates being pushed back due to the closure of courts, they were getting frustrated.
Temporary shelters were also being set up so inmates can be moved within the compound, without having to transfer them to other prisons. With the limited facilities available in the prisons, I believe they have taken all possible measures to ensure that the inmates’ health aspects are covered in terms of the Covid-19 preventive measures.
Out of the total capacity of inmates within the prison system, 73% are remand prisoners awaiting their trial dates. There were measures in place to reduce the amount of such prisoners by expediting their hearing dates.
A report was submitted to Ministry of Justice Secretary Attorney-at-Law Priyantha Mayadunne to expedite further legal action against 6,334 remand prisoners facing charges for possession of under 2 g of heroin and less than 5 kg of cannabis.
There were further delays caused by the backlog of reports from the Government Analyst’s Department on substances.