Homagama Base Hospital Website’s Homepage
While searching for the telephone number of Homagama Base Hospital, I was directed to its website. I was surprised because not many government hospitals can be found on the Net. I had a good look at the Homagama Hospital’s website http://www.homagamahospital.org/ and found much useful information available. They have lined up contact information, clinic schedules, information about different departments of the hospital, an image gallery and a video gallery with important interviews with doctors about some diseases. It is commendable to see this type of work done without waiting till government allocates funds for this type of work. In fact the Ministry of Health should start at least an info page for each government hospital in its website if they cannot afford to launch websites for each hospital.
The consultant surgeon Dr. C. K. Pathirana has designed the website with his own effort. The hospital needs computers and an internet connection to update the website timely. The website doesn’t have an email address because there is no facility to check emails timely. The hospital plans to convert its books and files into digital format and the only barrier is not having necessary infrastructure.
Mr. B. A. Mahipala is a big donor to the Homagama Base Hospital. He has done a lot to help renovate the hospital with his own money. Visit his company website http://www.bamholdings.com/.
Most of the private hospitals have websites and only few of the leading government hospitals have websites. Only one I could find was the National Hospital Websitehttp://www.nationalhospital.lk/.The Karapitiya Hospital has a webpage at Ruhunu University website http://www.medi.ruh.ac.lk/THK/index.php. But leading hospitals like the Eye Hospital, Lady Ridgeway Hospital, De Soyza Women’s Hospital, Kalubowila Hospital, Ragama Hospital, Kandy Hospital, Peradeniya Hospital, Anuradhapura Hospitalor Jaffna Hospital do not have websites though they are big hospitals. Sri Jayawardenepura Hospital has a very primitive website hosted at a third party server at http://www.infolanka.com/org/SJGH/.
It is encouraging to see that Ampara Hospital has a website http://www.ghampara.gov.lk though the hospital is situated far away from Colombo. This is a very informative website and has been assisted by the ICTA to set up. This can be taken as a model for other hospitals to follow. The site is being updated timely. The Ampara Hospital is a very special hospital in Sri Lanka and it has won a number of awards for its productivity.
Nanda Wanninayaka 