Doherty Shannon, Sureshkumar Diliniya Stanislaus, Thayakaran Rasiah, Surenthirakumaran Rajendra
School of Allied Health, Faculty of Health, Education, Medicine and Social Care, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
Unit for Social and Community Psychiatry, WHO Collaborating Centre for Mental Health Service Development, Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom.
Front Health Serv. 2022 Jan 28;1:719617. doi: 10.3389/frhs.2021.719617. eCollection 2021.
Sri Lanka's healthcare systems attempts to provides access to universal healthcare services for all citizens and is designed to be free of out-of-pocket payments. Despite a 30-year civil conflict, natural disasters, and COVID-19, the healthcare system within the country remains robust and strong. However, due to a lack of formalized pathways and centralized record keeping, the pattern of service utilization is still relatively unknown, which raises concerns regarding effective allocation of scarce resources and efficiency of referral pathways. To address this gap in knowledge, part of the parent study (COMGAP-S), consisted of a survey on healthcare service use conducted among adults attending primary care facilities. The results from this quantitative data analysis indicate the majority of people seeking care originate from rural areas, are older (50+), attend divisional hospitals, and report paying fees at point of contact. Our findings indicate a need for more efficient use of healthcare services, creation of referral routes to ensure limited healthcare resources are used effectively. Additionally, further investment in services is needed to ensure Sri Lanka's healthcare system meets the standard of universal healthcare as proposed by the World Health Organization. These findings address a gap in knowledge for national decision-makers within Sri Lanka along with other similar post-conflict healthcare settings across the globe.
斯里兰卡的医疗保健系统试图为所有公民提供全民医疗保健服务，并且设计为无需自掏腰包付费。尽管经历了30年的内战、自然灾害和新冠疫情，但该国的医疗保健系统仍然稳健有力。然而，由于缺乏正规的途径和集中的记录保存，服务利用模式仍然相对不明，这引发了对稀缺资源有效分配和转诊途径效率的担忧。为了填补这一知识空白，母研究（COMGAP-S）的一部分包括对在基层医疗设施就诊的成年人进行的医疗服务使用情况调查。这项定量数据分析的结果表明，大多数寻求医疗服务的人来自农村地区，年龄较大（50岁以上），在分区医院就诊，并报告在就诊时付费。我们的研究结果表明，需要更有效地利用医疗服务，建立转诊途径以确保有限的医疗资源得到有效利用。此外，还需要对服务进行进一步投资，以确保斯里兰卡的医疗保健系统达到世界卫生组织提出的全民医疗保健标准。这些研究结果填补了斯里兰卡国家决策者以及全球其他类似冲突后医疗保健环境的知识空白。
