1990 Suwa Seriya – evolving to serve the nation better

Recently, Sri Lanka’s national, pre-hospital, emergency ambulance service – 1990 Suwa Seriya – announced the launch of its innovative Connected Ambulance, which is powered by the state-of-the-art Mixed Reality and Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology. The latest technological innovation will provide enhanced patient care before hospitalisation by delivering specialised treatments through a fully connected platform.

Beginning from 88 ambulances in two provinces in 2016, Suwa Seriya has grown to become a 24-hour, emergency medical service with 297 ambulances that covers the entire country. The presence of a proper, emergency medical service which offers initial first aid apart from expeditiously transporting the patient to the hospital was a long-felt need, particularly by communities living in rural areas of the island. Within three years of unveiling the project, Suwa Seriya was able to establish a nationwide, pre-hospital care ambulance service which is available freely to every citizen in the country. 

Ironically, this widely acclaimed initiative, which has immensely benefitted the less-affluent sections of the society, is the brainchild of SJB MP Dr. Harsha de Silva – who is often castigated for representing economic extremism or neoliberalism by various Leftist political ideologues. The Colombo District MP’s passion to launch this project was motivated by a traumatic experience he had to undergo almost a decade ago when the vehicle he was travelling in with others met with an accident in Kantale, which resulted in one of his friends getting seriously injured and requiring immediate medical assistance. During this ordeal, the MP was shocked by the pathetic state of pre-hospital care, ambulance service he came to observe first hand in a remote area of the country. The distressing encounter inspired the economist-turned-politician to come up with a remedy to address this grave shortcoming within the nation’s healthcare system if ever he got an opportunity.

When the Indian Premier Narendra Modi visited Sri Lanka in 2015, the Indian Government was keen to fund a project of national importance to mark the friendship between the two countries. De Silva, who was a Deputy Minister at that time, came up with the proposal to launch a program which is similar to the 108 Ambulance Service operating in India. The then Deputy Minister’s proposal received the fullest blessing of the then Premier Ranil Wickremesinghe, and his longstanding friendship with his Indian counterpart too contributed towards the successful implementation of the venture.

During the initial stages, Suwa Seriya had to undergo numerous obstacles. The prominent GMOA members carried out a massive disinformation campaign against this progressive program and even refused to allow 1990 ambulances to be parked in Government hospitals. Politicians in the calibre of Wimal Weerawansa and Udaya Gammanpila even had the audacity to link the scheme with India’s intelligence service agents – RAW. Today, all those naysayers have been proved wrong and the value of the project has been appreciated by almost everyone in the country. The wisdom of implementing this project was visible to everybody during the period of the COVID-19 pandemic when its dedicated staff worked 24/7 to safeguard the lives of patients.

Although the ambulance service was launched in 2016 as a donation from the Indian Government, it became a Government service through the Suwa Seriya Act No. 18 of 2018. The service is manned by a highly committed 1,390 plus staff, and its emergency medical technicians are given training at the GVK EMRI – Hyderabad. As the Government found it difficult to provide the entire funding requirement for this year to maintain the emergency service, many corporates came forward to bridge the shortfall to ensure its activities remained at the full scale. 

Suwa Seriya is led by the guidance of a highly professional Board of Directors under the leadership of Dumindra Ratnayaka and their steadfast devotion towards this noble cause has been an immense source of strength towards the continuity of the emergency ambulance service despite the turbulent environment in the country over the last few years.