NFTH, Mulleriyawa hospital to be teaching hospitals: Rajitha

Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne said today a Cabinet Paper would be submitted soon to develop the Neville Fernando Teaching Hospital (NFTH) and Mulleriyawa Base Hospital as the Colombo East Teaching Hospitals.

He told parliament that there were some issues in providing full staff to the NFTH as the final agreement had not been signed to take over the Hospital.

"When the agreement is finalised, the NTFH will be assigned the required staff," the minister said. He said this in response to a question asked by JVP MP Nalinda Jayatissa regarding the current status of the SAITM Hospital.

The MP asked whether the SAITM Hospital was fully owned by the government and whether a Cabinet subcommittee was appointed to hand it over to the Air Force.

The minister said the SAITM Hospital was fully owned by the government and functions under a board of directors appointed by the government just as in the case of Sri Jayawardenepura Hospital.

"I was not in the country when the Cabinet paper was presented to hand it over to the Air Force. I spoke to the Prime Minister about it. I will present a Cabinet paper at the next meeting to develop the NFTH under the government. We hope to develop NFTH and the Mulleriyawa Base Hospital as Colombo East Teaching Hospital so that students of Kotalawala Defence University(KDU) can be provided clinical facilities," he said. (Ajith Siriwardana and Yohan Perera)