Over 230 television screens imported for telemedicine services in hospitals across Sri Lanka are at risk of being damaged due to delays in project implementation, Medical and Civil Rights Doctors’ Trade Union Alliance President Specialist Dr. Chamal Sanjeewa has warned.
The equipment was procured under a USAID-funded initiative aimed at strengthening the health system by enabling telemedicine consultations between specialists in major hospitals, doctors in peripheral hospitals, and patients. However, Dr. Sanjeewa said the objectives of the project have largely remained unfulfilled.
Hospital sources report that many of the television screens have already become unusable due to prolonged non-use and poor maintenance, while the remaining equipment faces imminent destruction unless urgent action is taken.
Dr. Sanjeewa criticised what he described as a poorly planned and ill-informed digitalisation programme within the public health sector, which he said has resulted in massive wastage of public funds. Computers and other high-value equipment reportedly lie unused in hospital storage facilities, while trained IT doctors are concentrated in the Ministry of Health and the Western Province, rather than being deployed across all 25 districts to support service delivery.
He stressed the need for a comprehensive audit to identify those responsible for these failures and urged the Postgraduate Institute of Medicine to re-evaluate IT training programmes, particularly as the country faces a severe shortage of doctors in essential clinical services.
Dr. Sanjeewa called on authorities to immediately assess the financial losses and inefficiencies caused by the unregulated rollout of digital health services, warning that without corrective measures, the telemedicine project risks collapsing before it can benefit patients.
