Sri Lanka cardiac healthcare expansion

Sri Lanka is expanding its cardiac care capabilities through new institutional partnerships and infrastructure investments.

A tripartite Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Health and Mass Media, and the General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University (KDU). This initiative aims to increase the availability of free cardiothoracic surgical procedures by utilizing the facilities and specialized equipment at the KDU Teaching Hospital. The partnership is intended to reduce congestion and lengthy waiting lists at the National Hospital of Sri Lanka, with specialist doctors from the National Hospital performing surgeries at KDU while the Ministry of Health provides necessary medicines and supplies.

Parallel to these service expansions, the Cabinet approved contracts exceeding Rs. 5 billion for new cardiac infrastructure. Supported by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), these projects include a new cardiac unit at the Trincomalee District General Hospital and a cardiac and cardiothoracic surgery complex at the Anuradhapura Teaching Hospital. Contracts for these developments were awarded to Maga Engineering (Pvt) Ltd to improve cardiovascular disease diagnosis and treatment in those districts.