Recent developments in infrastructure and capacity building at the Teaching Hospital, Karapitiya (THK), Sri Lanka towards improving care given to patients with trauma and emergencies

Abstract

Sri Lanka was devastated by the Asian Tsunami of 2004 December which took lives of nearly 40,000 people. Galle District too had a substantial share of the losses amounting to over 5,000 lives. Although most of these deaths were not preventable, a significant number of deaths could have been prevented if THK was in a state of disaster preparations.

In the wake of the tsunami disaster among many donations that poured into Sri Lanka, an aid package of around 500 million Sri Lankan rupees was donated by the Government of Victoria to construct an Emergency and Trauma Centre (ETC) for THK under a project named 'Health for South'. The Government of Sri Lanka signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Government of Victoria in February 2005 to enable implementation of several aid packages including the 'Health for South' project.     

DOI: 10.4038/gmj.v14i1.1162

Galle Medical Journal Vol.14(1) 2009 1-4