Australian medical teams support the Pioneering 1990 Suwa Seriya - By Lawrence Machado

Australian medical teams support the Pioneering 1990 Suwa Seriya – By Lawrence Machado

Lawrence Machado

Australian medical teams support the Pioneering 1990 Suwa Seriya - By Lawrence Machado

A team of dedicated Australians and Sri Lankan-Australians have regularly given their time and skills to 1990 Suwa Seriya, the pioneering free ambulance service in Sri Lanka.

From 88 ambulances when it was launched in 2016, the service now has nearly 300 and services the entire island, providing unparalleled service. 1990 is the toll free call service in Sri Lanka.

Ian Hutchinson, a retired paramedic with NSW Ambulance, was one of those who volunteered their time and money to provide expert training and guidance to the Suwa Seriya team last year.

Australian medical teams support the Pioneering 1990 Suwa Seriya - By Lawrence Machado

The Australian team was led by Sanj Fernando, an aeromedical-based consultant at Liverpool, NSW. He started a collaboration project with Suwa Seriya in 2016 to build a service from the ground up.

Ian said he was very impressed with the commitment and skills of the paramedics he met in Sri Lanka, saying they make the most of what they have to look after those in their care.

“Some of the Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) we met were truly spectacular,” Ian said. “ These are committed EMTs who do so much with so little.”

Ian, who has vast experience in his field, praised the work of Suwa Seriya, saying the entire team, made a big impression on him with their dedication.

Australian medical teams support the Pioneering 1990 Suwa Seriya - By Lawrence Machado

“Chief medical officer Dr Sri Lal De Silva is one of the driving forces of the medical revitalisation of 1990 Suwa Seriya, and is an absolute legend of a man, who is qualified over three specialties,” Ian said.

The organisation, run by the Suwa Seriya Foundation, was established to attend to accidents, disease, and emergency situations, to rescue and help people in emergencies quickly and competently, and to rehabilitate people after illness and injury.

Australian medical teams support the Pioneering 1990 Suwa Seriya - By Lawrence Machado

1990 Suwa Seriya began with a with a desire to deliver high-quality prehospital emergency healthcare to people across the island, and have made tremendous strides towards to their magnificent goals.

In 2015, Dr Harsha De Silva; the Deputy Minister of National Policies and Economic Affairs, presented the Prime Minister with a proposal for a modern emergency medical service with an ambulance network.

Australian medical teams support the Pioneering 1990 Suwa Seriya - By Lawrence Machado

With the support of a generous grant from the Indian government, the first 1990 ambulance was launched in Hambantota on July 27, 2016.

Over a short period of time and multiple challenges and hurdles to overcome, the 1990 Suwa Seriya free ambulance service has become a pioneer in Sri Lanka as a one-of-a-kind emergency medical service that covers the entire country.

“You can reach our services via telephone or through the Suwa Seriya app which has been designed to include the Sinhala, English, and Tamil languages across a user-friendly interface,” the organisation says on its website.

“The app has also been designed to allow you to contact us in situations where you have limited/no network or no/low call credit through a free of a charge phone call.

“The app becomes active only in Sri Lanka, thus making it an easy to use and safe option for tourists to use as well.”

The 1990 Suwa Seriya Foundation was established by Act of Parliament in 2018, and functions under Primary Health Care, Epidemics and COVID Disease Control State Ministry. 1990 Suwa Seriya provides island-wide, free pre-hospital emergency care to all Sri Lankans, with an average response time of 15:32 minutes.

1990 Suwa Seriya has embraced new technology in providing this remarkable service, including a locally-developed real-time vehicle tracking system monitored by the central command and control centre, and an ambulance navigation and routing system to reach their destinations faster.

Alll cases are followed up with the patient’s family 48 hours after the incident while a 24/7 police post is stationed within the control centre for immediate communications with the connected police stations.

All their ambulances are strategically located in police stations across Sri Lanka and are connected to their fast and efficient call centres that operate 24/7.