The health services of Sri Lanka present and future.

1. Sri Lanka has achieved a high human development status; 2) The health sector, and particularly the government health sector, has played an important role in this achievement. 3) The health transition is going to increase the burden of disease and the demand for health services; 4) The government health services have been underfunded and the provincial health services have been more underfunded; 5) The most cost efficient health services, anywhere in the world, are government funded; 6) Therefore, it is our duty to lobby government to increase government funding for health services; 7) The preventive health service should continue to be funded fully by government. Prevention of non-communicable diseases should come within this orbit. Staff in preventive health services should be better remunerated; 8) The essential clinical package in the periphery must be improved to reduce by-passing and underutilization; 9) Management of tertiary health care facilities have to be strengthened. They should be given responsibility and autonomy; 10) A powerful unit should be established in the Ministry to study and implement cost recovery and cost containment in tertiary care institutions; 11) Senior doctors should take an active part in the management of the tertiary care institutions to make them more efficient. 12) Private hospitals should be supervised by the Ministry in order to ensure quality of care and to contain national health care costs: