Dr. Kumari Wickramasinghe, MD.

Immediate Past President,

SLMANA (Western Region),

CA,

USA.

Dear Dr. Wickramasinghe,

Re: Progress Report on Project to Establish an OBGYN HDU at UTH Peradeniya.

It gives me great pleasure to report that we have made significant progress with this project, funded by a generous grant from the

Sri Lanka Medical Association of North America (SLMANA-Western Region).

We submitted a grant application supported by a video clip at the end of August 2019.

The project was selected for funding by SLMANA at your Gala Annual Meeting at the end of October.

Rotary Club of Colombo partnered with us on this project, set up separate bank account to accept funds and the first tranche was duly received in early 2020.

All our plans were disrupted by Covid 19. The world was turned "upside down" and C19 remains a serious public health emergency all over the world. This epidemic shut down the supply chain in China, which is the major source of medical equipment. Sri Lanka was under continuous curfew for over 8 weeks, from the end of March to late May.

Fortunately, I managed to secure 5 HDU beds from Walk Rite (Pvt) Ltd before the "shutdown", as they had stocks in hand. However, it has taken many months to secure multi monitors for the HDU.

Finally, The monitors were delivered on the 10th August 2020, installed and staff in-serviced on their careful use.

I wish to express my grateful thanks to you and the members of SLMANA for your forbearance with all the delays that impacted on project implementation. I would also like to thank the members of the Rotary Club of Colombo for the role they played in facilitating this project, at very short notice.

A special "thank you" to Prof. Vasanti Pinto, for her support and initiative to train the ward nurses in the ICU in batches

The HDU is operational!!!!

For greater efficiency, all 5 beds will be in Ward 19 at UTH Peradeniya. Three beds are accommodated in the partitioned cubicle and the remaining two beds are on the other side of the divider where a wall oxygen supply is available.

.

I am enclosing some photos to be shared with the membership of SLMANA. I am forwarding same to Mayura Fernando at Rotary Club of Colombo Fort to update the membership of Rotary on progress. You will note that a crib, with a newborn baby, is attached to one bed. Another mother is nursing her newborn. Both mother are after a C-Section have been admitted to the HDU on the day of commissioning

I am extremely privileged to have linked a patriotic Sri Lankan group in the US with an institution that provides quality women's health care in Sri Lanka. International travel restrictions will prevent a visit by SLMANA member(s) for some time. However, I am hopeful that a member from the Rotary Club of Colombo Fort would be able to visit and send SLMANA an independent report soon.

Dr. Nawaz Jiffry, the Consultant Obstetrician, and I would like to express our grateful thanks for your magnanimous support. I am sending these photos to share this joyous moment with all of you.

Sincerely

Dr. Padmalal Desilva, MBBS, FFARCSI.

Department of Anaesthesia and Critical Care,

Faculty of Medicine,

University of Peradeniya.