Colombo – IOM and the Ministry of Healthcare and Nutrition have organized a two-day workshop, funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), to improve primary health care services in northern Sri Lanka.

The event, which brought together some 40 health professionals from the north and east in Anuradhapura, was entitled "Primary Curative Care Model for the North".

Participants included health sector professionals from both national and provincial levels, together with representatives from the Ministry of Health, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and IOM.

The workshop looked at ways of managing a wide spectrum of issues, including the primary health needs of tens of thousands of displaced people returning to their places of origin, the challenges facing health workers in areas of return, and planning primary level health care for returnees.

Participants also examined the challenge of rebuilding health infrastructure in the north, training for primary healthcare staff, and the equipment, drugs and basic lab tests needed at primary level curative institutions.

Since the end of the conflict between the government and the LTTE in May 2009, IOM Sri Lanka, in partnership with the Ministry of Health, has provided emergency health care services to more than 200,000 displaced people in northern Sri Lanka. 

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For more information please contact: Stacey Winston, IOM Colombo, Tel: +94(0)115325300, mobile: +94(0)772366272, E-mail: swinston@iom.int or  Gaya Nagahawatta,  E-mail: gnagahawatta@iom.int