Acute shortage at Thellipalai hospital

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 August 2003, 03:22 GMT]
The Thellipalai hospital for mental patients, completely destroyed by the Sri Lanka Army operations in 1990, has been operating since then in a private building that falls under the SLA’s High Security Zone without any facilities, and there are only 4 doctors and 16 nurses, though for proper patient care the hospital would need at least 12 doctors and 42 nurses, hospital sources said.

Currently the hospital provides long-term resident care for 37 mental patients, and on a daily basis, an additional 250—300 patients are seen at the outpatient clinic, health sources said.

In the 2nd quarter of 2003 alone, 21,941 patients have been treated at the outpatient clinic, the sources added.

Meanwhile, the Vavuniya Human Rights Commission has received a complaint that a 10 year-old girl from the Welfare Center in Vavuniya has been missing since July 28.

The parents of the girl said in the complaint that, the girl, Vimalatharsini Sivanathan, left the Welfare Centre to bathe in the nearby Marampaikulam pond, but never returned, and a thorough search had produced no result.