Incompetence lead to the risk of patients lives at Karapitiya Teaching Hospital

COLOMBO (News 1^st) - Cardio-Thoracic surgeon attached to the Karapitya Teaching Hospital Specialist Dr. Namal Gamage has decided to withdraw from performing surgeries at the Heart Surgery ICU from next Monday (July 16). Dr. Gamage has resorted to this action as a mark of protest, citing that the authorities have failed to repair the central air-conditioning system of the Heart Surgery ICU. The system was established in 2003 and it's first malfunctioned was recorded in 2013. The hospital officials had requested the authorities to either modernize the existing system or to install a new system on a number of occasions. However, the requests had fallen on deaf ears. Dr. Namal Gamage had performed over 1000 surgeries in the past year. However, this number has drastically reduced to 700 surgeries because of this shortcoming. As of today, Specialist Dr. Namal Gamage has performed more than 18,000 Cardio-thoracic surgeries. It is reported that more than 3000 patients have been included in a waiting list for Cardio-thoracic surgery at the Karapitiya Teaching Hospital. After a patient undergoes a Cardio-thoracic surgery, he/she is admitted to the heart surgery ICU. Internal sources say that patients began to fall victim to germs and bacteria following the Central Air Conditioning System malfunction. Sources also claim that a patient dies once in every two weeks after a dangerous germ enters into their systems. On the 24^th of November 2015, Health Minister (Dr.) Rajitha Senaratne promised to solve the issue while on an inspection tour of the hospital. He had said that Rs. 1 Billion was approved for the cancer hospital and the remaining issues will also be solved. Although the Minister made such a statement in 2015, officials are yet to install either the Central Air Conditioning System at the Heart Surgery ICU or the linear accelerator. Nevertheless, Speaking to News 1^st, Minister (Dr.) Rajitha Senaratne said steps have already been taken to solve the issue in the coming days.