National Hospital Faces Massive Backlog: 9,600 Await Bypass Surgery, 5,000 for Angiograms

 Thousands of patients are facing severe difficulties due to the severe congestion in the cardiology treatment units of the Colombo National Hospital, Health and Mass Media Minister Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa revealed in Parliament. Participating in the recent committee stage debate on the expenditure head of the Ministry of Health, the Minister pointed out that

thousands of patients are on waiting lists for bypass surgeries and angiogram tests.

According to the data presented by the Minister, an extremely long queue of approximately 9,600 patients has currently formed at the Colombo National Hospital for bypass surgeries, requiring a patient to wait for about five years. In addition, about five thousand people are registered and waiting in queues for angiogram tests, meaning each patient has to wait at least seven months for the examination, he stated.

The Minister also pointed out that the majority of all deaths in the country, about eighty percent, are due to non-communicable diseases, and 34 percent of these are related to heart diseases. Analyzing this data, it was emphasized that there is a tendency for males to die more frequently due to heart attacks, while a larger number of females die due to conditions such as strokes.

Stating that the government is taking urgent steps to control this situation and overcome the shortcomings in the hospital system, the Minister announced plans to commence a new 16-story cardiac hospital complex within the Colombo National Hospital premises starting next year. He further added that, with the aim of expanding treatment facilities at the provincial level, steps would be taken to allocate three floors of a building at Badulla Hospital for cardiac treatment services.