Peter Cribb has initiated this club international project in conjunction with Rotary Club of Columbo. It is led by Nihal De Run, a previous visitor with PDG Senake Ameresinghe from Rotary Colombo.
The CT scanner installed at Batticaloa requires a major software upgrade {US$35,000} and due to the economic disaster currently being experienced in Sri Lanka, funds are not available.
A lift is also needed to support disabled patients and goods to travel from the ground floor up.
The Foundation was established in 2011.
The purpose of the Foundation is to build an Accident & Emergency Trauma Hospital as an adjunct to the major general hospital in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka which served close to 3 million people from Trincomalee in the North to Polonnaruwa in the West and Pottuvil in the South.
The major general hospital in the Eastern Province did not have an Emergency & Accident Trauma Unit.
This omission was partly due to political reasons and partly due to the forty year conflict that raged between the Tamil people in the North & East and the Government of Sri Lanka, which was made up mainly of Singhalese people.
From 2011 to 2018 the Foundation worked tirelessly to raise the required money to provide 30% of the funding to establish the Emergency & Accident Trauma Unit within the premises of the Teaching Hospital in Batticaloa and negotiated with the Ministry of Health, Government of Sri Lanka to contribute the remaining 70%.
The Rotary Movement played a vital part in this project and the tax deductibility we were afforded made it easier to raise a considerable amount of money from wealthy individuals and corporations in Australia.
A public private (not for profit) partnership was set up under a Memorandum of Understanding and the required sums of money were raised not only to build the structure but also to equip the wards and the operating theatres with the essential machinery and equipment.
We contributed about 30%( $3 million) towards the total costs.
We contributed about 30%( $3 million) towards the total costs.
The centrepiece of the radiology machinery was the provision of the 160 slice CT Scanner which is the only one of its kind at the hospital and in the Eastern Province.
The CT scanner, from Canon/Toshiba, cost $750,000. We contributed a third.
As a result of its placement and availability there are patients coming from far and wide seeking diagnosis and then treatment. It has quadrupled the admissions to the General hospital.
Now, two years on, we have received a request for some ancillary equipment to augment the CT Scanner. These are to facilitate cardiac assessments and will save lives with better diagnosis and consequent treatment or surgeries.
The package of equipment is described in the quotation that I have attached to this email. A request for this equipment from the user (A&E @THB) is also attached.
This request to Rotary is for the re-instatement of our RAWCS tax deductibility status please.
Nihal de Run
Executive Vice President and CEO
Foundation Supporting a National Trauma Service in Sri Lanka Inc