He said that the Cabinet proposal presented by Health Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi to raise the retirement age of doctors from 60 to 61 years had been approved.

He said that there is a dearth of doctors in the country and as such the retirement age of doctors had been raised in order to obtain the services of the existing doctors for a longer period in order to make up for the shortage of doctors.
The Cabinet Spokesman said that President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa had taken a decision to appoint a special committee to look into every profession and based on the service requirement to take the decision to raise the retirement age limit. Further Rs. 1.8 billion will be allocated for the development of the Eastern Colombo Base Hospital, Mulleriyawa Base Hospital, upgrading of the Out Patients Department, Infant care ward and the ICU. Cabinet approval had also been granted for the proposal to increase the proposed 10 stories of the Lady Ridgeway Women’s and Children’s Hospital to 12 stories.

He also said that the proposal to construct official quarters for medical staff at all hospitals had also been approved. This decision had been taken in the face of the current Covid-19 pandemic which has affected the entire world and all hospitals in the country would have specialized fever wards constructed