The Cabinet has given its approval to upgrade Teaching Hospital Karapitiya to a National Hospital, making it the third National Hospital in Sri Lanka.
The Department of Government Information (DGI) announced the decisions taken by the Cabinet of Ministers yesterday (23). The Teaching Hospital operated as the premier healthcare center, providing tertiary care services to patients in the Southern Province and adjacent provinces. It was also a leading maternity service provider. “Patients requiring specialist services were referred to this hospital by primary and secondary healthcare institutions in those provinces,” the DGI stated.
The hospital’s Professorial Unit was established for the teaching activities of the Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Allied Health Sciences of the University of Ruhuna. Annually, the hospital provided teaching and training facilities to around 1,100 medical students from the University of Ruhuna, around 500 students from the Galle Nurses Training School, and approximately 100 physiotherapists, pharmacists, and Medical Laboratory Technicians. By the end of this year, the hospital’s bed capacity would be increased to 2,858, making this tertiary care health center second only to Sri Lanka National Hospital, Colombo.
Therefore, the Cabinet of Ministers approved the proposal submitted by Health Minister Dr. Ramesh Pathirana to upgrade Teaching Hospital Karapitiya to a National Hospital and name it the ‘National Hospital, Galle’.