Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2018-05-15

Upgrading the Health facilities in the Estate Sector

- There are more than 220,000 families living in the Estate Sector of the country. 90% of the labour force in the Estate Sector constitute of women and the nutrition status of the children and the pregnant mothers living in those areas are at a low ebb when compared with the rest of the areas in the Island. As such, the necessity of giving priority to upgrade the health facilities in the Estate Sector has been identified. Presently, there are about 450 Estate Dispensaries under the estate management and a proposal has been made to enhance the health status of the estate sector by upgrading of the said Dispensaries.

Accordingly, the proposal made by Hon. (Dr.) Rajitha Senaratne, the Minister of Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine, to integrate the Estate Health Network with that of the Government to enable the people of the Estate Sector to obtain the health services conveniently in the manner the services as provided by the Government to the people of the other Rural and Urban Areas and to vest all the Estate Health Institutes now implemented under the Estate Management with the Government in Phases, was approved by the Cabinet.