Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2017-12-12

Continuation of the '1990 Suwaseriya' Emergency Pre-hospital Care Ambulance Service

- The Emergency Pre-hospital Care Ambulance Service which commenced in the Southern and Western Provinces with Indian Grant Assistance is presently implemented successfully and the approval of the Cabinet has been granted to establish the '1990 Suwaseriya Foundation' by an Act of Parliament for the uninterrupted supply of the service. The Drafting of the Bill for the purpose is in progress.

Under Phase II of this initiative, the Government of India has agreed to provide an additional grant facility for the expansion of the above service in the other seven Provinces as well, by deploying 209 additional ambulances. Accordingly, the proposal made by Hon. Ranil Wickremasinghe, the Prime Minister in his capacity as the Minister of National Policies and Economic Affairs, to extend the period of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) entered into between the GVK EMRI Lanka (Pvt.) (GEL) Ltd. and the Ministry of Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine to continue the service uninterruptedly until the '1990 Suwaseriya Foundation' is established, was approved by the Cabinet.