Homagama to be made Teaching Hospital:
To enrol 500 local, foreign students annually :
The government has decided to upgrade the Homagama Base Hospital as a Teaching Hospital for the establishment of a Faculty of Medicine under the National School of Business Management (NSBM), Cabinet Spokesman, Mass Media Minister Dr. Bandula Gunawardhana said.
Speaking at the weekly Cabinet media briefing held yesterday at the Government Information Department, Minister Gunawardhana said that the Cabinet of Ministers approved the proposal presented by President Ranil Wickremesinghe to take over the Homagama Base Hospital under the purview of the Health Ministry and upgrade it as a Teaching Hospital.
He further said that the NSBM green university is a state-owned institution started when Dullas Alahapperuma was the Vocational Training Minister.
It has been proposed to establish a medical college under the direct supervision and regulation of the Education and Health Ministries and the Sri Lanka Medical Council by the National School of Business Management (NSBM), a fully self-financed institution owned by the government and to award MBBS degrees through it.
It is expected to enroll 500 local and foreign students annually for the relevant degree course. The institution has sought approval to reserve the Homagama Base Hospital as a suitable government hospital for clinical training of the degree of this Medicine Faculty. The institution has sought approval to reserve the Homagama Base Hospital as a suitable government hospital for clinical training for the degree of this Faculty of Medicine.
Since the approval of the Cabinet was already given for the use of the Homagama Base Hospital for the clinical training of NSBM medical students, it has been proposed to prepare a mechanism to reserve the hospital on the basis of resource sharing for the clinical training of medical faculty students as well as professor unit facilities.
The National School of Business Management has agreed to provide the necessary funds for the development of the Homagama Base Hospital in accordance with the standards of medical education published by the Sri Lanka Medical Council.
The Cabinet approved the proposal presented by the President to take over the Homagama Base Hospital under the purview of the Health Ministry and upgrade it as a teaching hospital.
Homagama Hospital, which is currently under the Provincial Council, is a base hospital that provides a lot of services, but it does not have advanced professor units like at the Kalubowila Hospital. With this decision, it will be possible to add machinery and buildings to the Homagama Hospital, including a professor’s unit, which will be required to provide clinical training for the NSBM without any government expenditure.
