On 3rd September PHM’s 2018 Global Health Watch 5 (GHW5) was launched in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Many prominent figures and Members of the Peoples’ Health Movement of Sri Lanka were among the participants at this occasion. The Welcome Speech and the Introduction was given by Sirimal Peiris. In his address, he mentioned that GHW is an alternative report to World Health Report. GHW talked about the present day health issues and it invited participants to work closely to reduce the many health inequalities.
The main speaker was Dr Vinya Ariyaratne who emphasized points in GHW5’s 5 sections. He had a marching Power Point Presentation to make his points. After Dr Vinya’s presentation, the discussion began as an open forum. Many participants highly appreciated GHW5 while some of the participants pointed out their concerns about it. Traditional medical practitioners showed their grievances that GHW5 does not contain anything about alternative medicine.
PLHIV explained how they are still discriminated by the society and nothing has been mentioned about their problems in GHW5. Trade Union activists claimed that more emphasis should be put on occupational health matters. The Forum also focused on the insurance schemes being introduced by the Government which is a threat to free health services in the country.
It was further mentioned that the masses require proper health services from the Government Hospitals and Government Institutions, but not such an insurance scheme because it encourages the people to go to Private Hospitals.