• Cadre revision for 290 service categories nearing completion
• Staffing per hospital level, services provided, service demand
• Discrepancies to be addressed via transfers, recruitments
• KPI-based performance targets for resource use including HR 

The Health Ministry is nearing the completion of a scientific cadre revision covering all categories of health workers, while also planning to introduce performance-based targets to ensure the effective use of human and other resources, Deputy Health Minister Dr Hansaka Wijemuni said.

Speaking to The Daily Morning yesterday (5), Dr Wijemuni said the new cadre revision is being carried out using a set of guidelines developed under the leadership of the Additional Secretary for Medical Services following concerns over previous revisions. He said that although cadre revisions had been carried out in 2017, 2018 and 2019, they had not been based on a sound scientific methodology and had, therefore, not been accepted by everyone.

"We have prepared a set of guidelines that everyone can accept and are now carrying out a scientific cadre revision for all categories of staff. The work is almost complete," he said. Dr Wijemuni said that the review covered around 290 health service categories, including doctors and the professions supplementary to medicine. He said that staffing requirements are being assessed based on several factors, including the level of the hospital, the services that it provides and the demand for those services, with the aim of ensuring that future staffing decisions are made on a scientific basis.

However, he stressed that completing the cadre revision would not automatically result in additional staff being appointed. "If there is an imbalance in staff distribution, we can address it through the transfer scheme. However, if there is an overall shortage in the system, it can only be corrected through new recruitment," he said. Dr Wijemuni said that the Government is continuing to recruit health workers while also working to improve the distribution of existing staff across the health sector.

He also said the Ministry is planning to introduce a performance monitoring system similar to the key performance indicators (KPIs) used in the private sector to assess whether hospitals are achieving the expected outcomes from the resources allocated to them. "We want to provide institutions with the resources that they need, including human resources (HR), medical equipment, medicines and surgical consumables, while also monitoring whether those resources produce the expected outcomes," he added.