Plight of patients transferred from Vanni to Vavuniya
Before the Sri Lanka State closed the A9 highway into Jaffna in August 2006, hospitals in Vanni could send the seriously ill patients to either the Jaffna or the Vavuniya district hospitals in ambulances.
The number of ambulances available for this was limited even then and in one trip an ambulance would carry anything up to eight patients. There used to be more than 20 such trips per day. Given this facility, the under-resourced Vanni hospitals were able to improve the healthcare they provided to the Vanni population. The closure of the A9 highway into Jaffna cut off half of this facility and the Vavuniya district hospital became the only hospital to which seriously ill, patients in Vanni could be transferred. The restrictions in fuel places further restraint on this ambulance transfer service as the hospitals in Vanni struggle to cope with very much reduced amount of fuel that was permitted for the by the Sri Lanka ministry of Defense. The Heads of both the Kilinochchi and Mullaithivu district hospitals have raised further concerns about the uncaring manner in which the patients sent to the Vavuniya hospital are being treated at the Omanthai checkpoint. Except for a small number of patients who just cannot sit up, the rest of the patients are asked to go by the bus like any other passenger due to the fuel shortage. These patients who are forced to travel in buses are forced by the Sri Lanka military to walk the one Kilometer of the neutral zone between the two areas of control despite their illness. The Vanni hospital heads lamented this tragic situation the patients are put through.
18 April 2008
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Europe which has a total population of 800 million is made up of 45 language based nation states. South Asia which has a total population of one billion, (1000 million) is comprised of four states. Who is preventing and therefore benefiting by limiting new nation-states in South Asia?
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