In appreciation of the professional service rendered by the Board of Directors of 1990 Suwaseriya Ambulance Service during past three years, His Excellency the President, Gotabhaya Rajapakshe, has reappointed the same Board of Directors for another term of three years. In accordance with the appointment in 2019, the Board stepped down at the end of their three-year tenure and the reappointment was confirmed by the President’s Office on the 11th of August 2021. This reappointment was initially proposed and supported by the Hon Minister of Primary Health Care, Epidemics and Covid Disease Control, Dr Sudharshini Fernandopulle.
The Board of Directors consist of professionals of diverse disciplines and expertise. They are Mr Dumindra Ratnayake, Chairman, Prof. Asitha de Silva, Mr Vijaya Malalasekera and Ms Sandya Salgado.
The Board also comprises ex-officio members from the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Finance and Sri Lanka Police. The entire Board has been providing an honorary service without any financial benefits or perks.
The Board is on call 24×7 to support the highly passionate and committed CEO, Sohan de Silva and the management team who run the service with total transparency and accountability as per the Board’s guidance and diligent oversight. Since the inception of the ambulance service, the call centre has answered 4,250,971 calls and attended to 921,508 incidents. From the start of the Covid Pandemic, the ambulances have been on a 24 hour non-stop routine transporting Covid19 positive patients to hospitals apart from attending to regular emergencies.
While the 1990 Suwaseriya pre-hospital ambulance service has 297 ambulances covering all districts of the country, plans are already in place to increase this number by another 112 by the year end, shortening the average response time to 8 minutes, from the current 13 minutes. The number of Pilots and EMTs too will be enhanced this year. The Board has plans of securing its own Call Centre and Training Centre with donor funding, which will help with better safety, security and sustainability of the operation.
With advanced digital technology used in the running of the Suwaseriya operation, there are newer services being planned to be introduced to save lives, especially for the older generation of the country, to support the inevitable demographic transition.
The government has spent over LKR 6 billion on the operation for the Suwaseriya Ambulance service since its inception.
