Starter Kit. Idea 357 of 500. Cluster 17
Diabetes and hypertension management clinics, since these are the diseases the island has
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
Offer free blood-pressure and blood-sugar checks for one Saturday morning in a temple hall, a church hall or a market, staffed by a nurse you pay for the day. Give each person their readings on a card and ask whether they would pay a monthly fee for regular checks, a kept record and reminders. The sign-up list with phone numbers is your proof of demand.
- Who pays first
- An adult child, at home or abroad, whose parent has been told to watch their sugar or pressure and never goes back for a check.
- What leaves today
- Care for the island's commonest long-term conditions is scattered and unrecorded; a clinic with kept records builds a local business on steady monthly fees.
Ask first
- the area Medical Officer of Health. Ask what a private clinic for long-term conditions must register.
- the local council (Municipal Council, Urban Council or Pradeshiya Sabha). Ask whether a public hall may host a health check morning.
Check before you spend
That a registered doctor oversees the clinic, how records are kept private, and that a check day only screens and refers, never treats.
Find out these three numbers
- How many people came to the free check morning?
- How many signed up for regular paid checks?
- What monthly fee covers a nurse and the records?
A comparison from the book
The public health record. Chapter Three
"These are not ordinary achievements for a country at Sri Lanka's income."
The island's health workers have beaten diseases richer countries have not; steady long-term care builds on that skill.
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.