The government has decided to establish a Faculty of Medicine at the National School of Business Management (NSBM), under the direct supervision of and regulation of the Education Ministry, Health Ministry and the Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC).

As many as 500 local and foreign students are expected to be annually enrolled for MBBS degrees offered by the NSBM, fully self-financed institution owned by the government.

For this purpose, NSBM has sought the government’s approval to reserve Homagama Base Hospital as a suitable government hospital to provide clinical training for its medical students.

Since the approval of the Cabinet of Ministers has already been given to use the Homagama Base Hospital for clinical training of Sri Jayewardenepura University’s medical students, it has been proposed to prepare a mechanism to reserve the hospital, on the basis of resource sharing, for the clinical training of NSBM medical faculty students as well as professor unit facilities.

The NSBM has agreed to provide necessary funds for the development of Homagama Base Hospital pursuant to the standards of medical education published by the SLMC.

As such, the Cabinet of Ministers on Monday (March 11) green-lighted the proposal presented by President Ranil Wickremesinghe to take over the Homagama Basic Hospital under the purview of the Health Ministry and upgrade it as a teaching hospital.