Development of Government Health System in Sri Lanka during Last Three Decades

Aims: Several aspects are associated with the health system. Development in each aspect in health sector is required parallel to the growth of the population of patients. This study was carried out with the intention of investigating the development in physical resources, human resources, and funds allocation for government health system in Sri Lanka.

Methodology: This study considered the development within the period from 1987 to 2019. Necessary data were collected from the annual reports of central bank of Sri Lanka. Data for physical resources, human resources, patients, and expenditures were gathered. Parallel developments of these aspects were analyzed by using descriptive and confirmatory techniques: Pearson’ correlation and canonical correlation. Apart from that some graphical techniques and summary measures were also used in the analysis.

Results: Number of both in-patients and out-patients has rapidly increased during this period, while expenditure on the health system also has exponentially grown. However, percentage of GDP allocated for health system has remained almost same. There can be seen a reasonable development in both human resources and physical resources.

Conclusion: Even though, health system has been developed to a greater extent, developments in some aspects are not parallel to the development in other aspects. However, further development is needed to meet the growing demand for health services due to increasing population of patients.