It is welcome news that Health Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva is seeking to expedite delivery of the Bti bacteria from Cuba with a view to containing any future outbreaks of dengue. It is not clear whether the bacteria in question would prove the most effective answer to the dreaded fever which has been breaking out with disconcerting frequency over the past few years but the public could take some consolation from the fact that the Health Minister is, to all outward appearances at least, not intending to take a laid back approach in tackling the problem.

We urge the health authorities to take all the necessary precautions, on an urgent basis, to prevent an outbreak of dengue and other diseases, because this is something the government owes the people. The monsoon showers which are currently lashing the country are a dreaded harbinger of a multiplicity of ills and health hazards are just one of these. As could have been observed, dengue now has an unerring tendency to accompany the monsoon torrents and it would be only a matter of time before dengue joins the long list of scourges currently assailing the public, unless quick action is taken to defeat the blight. The Health Minister and his team of officials, therefore, would do well to put their best foot forward to ward off the plethora of ills that the rains usually bring.

Lest they forget, the health authorities are reminded that there have been over 29,000 cases of dengue in this country since January, many of them fatal. If there is one pointer to the relentless qualitative decline of the health services of the country, it is the explosive reemergence of dengue and other dangerous diseases, which we thought we had seen the last of around two decades ago. Today, the health sector has deteriorated to such a degree that a frantic search has to be made for what seem to be miracle cures for diseases and ills which are enjoying a new lease of life in our midst.

Not too long ago, the ordinary people of this country could approach a government hospital and expect to be treated effectively for their sicknesses, with hardly a concern for any expenses. This is not the case today and fears crowd their minds on many a score; not least of these is whether they would be administered medicines free of impurities and other noxious substances. The recent disclosure that pieces of glass were detected in phials of medicine drives the point home.

Besides, there is no guarantee that the needy could have themselves treated in all government hospitals free of charge. In the majority of cases, ‘free’ medical treatment comes with a prohibitive price tag, reminding the poor in particular that government health care is now more a burden than what it was.

In another recent health sector scandal, two patients are believed to have died in government hospitals on being administered the rubella vaccine. As a result, government medical doctors have been compelled, reportedly, to put on hold the National Immunization Programme.

On top of these health anxieties comes the HINI influenza scare which to date has caused six deaths and affected some 258 other persons. The dread with which it is viewed is so pervasive that it has been instrumental in shutting down all Central Province public schools.

We are not living in a utopia and we do not expect human institutions to function faultlessly. Yet, the crises assailing the health sector have been far too many in recent times and too frequent to be viewed with an air of benevolent tolerance and accommodation. As we see it, the blight in the sector had been too leniently allowed to set in. We cannot allow the rot to accumulate unchecked, lest the rights of the people are bartered away for a mess of pottage. As it is, the Patient Rights Bill is running the risk of being rendered a dead letter. If the health sector per se is allowed to go to rack and ruin, it would be one of the most devastating tragedies to hit Sri Lanka.

We urge the health authorities to put the basics in place first. If a disease which was believed to have been wiped out long ago, such as dengue, has made a come back, it should be all too obvious that primary health care has been allowed to suffer serious debilitation. Where are the primary health workers, such as the PHIs and Mid Wives, we ask the health authorities? Why are they an increasingly unmarked presence in particularly our rural landscape, where diseases which at one time grew to epidemic proportions are making a come back?

Besides, if deaths are being caused by contaminated medicines in government hospitals, we are left to conclude that public sector hospitals are not being administered with a firm hand. ‘Things are falling apart the centre cannot hold’. This is the inescapable verdict.

Not everything could be bartered away in the ‘free market’. Sectors, such as, health, education and agriculture, need to be protected from the corrosive impact of ‘commodification’, which comes in the wake of market liberalization. The state needs to intervene strongly to save these sectors.

Health care in our country takes the form of a right and this is how it should be in view of the vast impact it has on the development of this country’s human resources. Accordingly, the health authorities would need to guide their personnel with a firm hand so as to enable them to attend to the health care needs of the people efficiently. If the authorities do what is expected of them conscientiously, there is no possibility of the sector being torn apart by strikes.