Director General of Health Services Dr. Asela Gunawardena and other officials of the Ministry of Health and Ayurvedic Physicians were also present at this discussion where a number of crucial decisions were taken.
The discussion was held after the positive feedback received to an inquiry made by State Minister Sudarshini Fernandopulle from State Minister of Indigenous Medicine Sisira Jayakody on the possibility of using Ayurvedic hospitals as intermediate care centers for COVID-19 patients.
Accordingly, State Minister Sudarshini Fernandopulle's proposal was approved and simultaneously the need for Ayurvedic and Western Medical Services to work together to control the pandemic was also discussed.
State Minister Fernandopulle further highlighted the importance of making decisions without prejudice to the patients and instructed the two parties to work out a methodology for working together. Concurrently, it was agreed to use the Ayurvedic hospitals as intermediate care centers mainly under the supervision of the Ministry of Health.
Furthermore, both parties agreed to give basic training to Ayurvedic medical staff on handling COVID-19 patients, to maintain Ayurvedic intermediate treatment centers under the supervision of a medical officer of the Ministry of Health and to provide the basic facilities required for the control of the epidemic.
Meanwhile, they also agreed to facilitate Ayurvedic or Western treatment depending on the patient's discretion.
In addition, the Minister of State instructed the Director General of Health Services to release a series of special instructions to streamline these activities and requested to make arrangements to provide Ayurvedic hospitals covering all districts for the said purposes.
In order to expedite this process, a five member committee comprising the two Secretaries of the two State Ministries was also appointed at the discussion.
State Minister Sisira Jayakody extended his gratitude for the Ayurvedic hospital system for having an efficient staff of about 2000 doctors and for agreeing to render their services to suppress the deadly pandemic.
