Sri Lankan health crisis could worsen as doctors seek work abroad

19/2/2024 13:10

        Once considered one of the best in the region, Sri Lanka's healthcare system is ailing, laid low by the exodus of hundreds of doctors and, with patients left languishing, experts are calling on the government to act to stop the loss of talent.
        
        More than 1,700 medical officers - an umbrella term for doctors and other healthcare professionals - have left Sri Lanka over the past two years, according to the Government Medical Officers' Association trade union, which shared data exclusively with the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
        
        This compares to the departure of around 200 doctors and other health workers in 2021. The latest exodus has dealt a heavy blow to the island nation's much-praised universal health system on which most of its 22 million people depend.