Starter Kit. Idea 348 of 500. Cluster 17
A hospital directory for families, published
The mechanism, from the book
Sri Lankans abroad have parents at home whom they cannot look after from Melbourne. They will pay, and the money stays.
The first step
Pick one procedure families ask about, such as cataract surgery, and one district. Ask 20 families who have been through it which hospital they used, what it cost, how long they waited and what they would tell a friend, and write the answers up as a single page. Share it in a group for Sri Lankans abroad and ask whether people would pay for the same page on five more procedures.
- Who pays first
- A child abroad choosing a hospital for a parent's operation from the other side of the world, who would pay for outcomes rather than advertisements.
- What leaves today
- Families with money now send parents abroad for surgery or guess; published outcomes are the proof that keeps the operation, and the fee, on the island.
Ask first
- Data Protection Authority. Ask what consent you need to publish families' accounts of their care.
Check before you spend
That every family agrees to be quoted, that published costs and waits are dated and shown as reports, not promises, and how hospitals can reply.
Find out these three numbers
- What did families pay for the procedure at each hospital?
- How long did each family wait?
- Would people pay for pages on more procedures?
A comparison from the book
Sri Lanka House, the published rules. Chapter Seventeen
"None of that is a value. All of it is checkable, which is the only property that matters."
Families trust facts they can check: real costs, real waits and real experiences.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.