• Only last month, Suwa Seriya (SS) or the National free hospital care emergency service attended to their two millionth patient!
• A service that was restricted to Southern and Western province six-years ago, spread its tentacles island wide 
• Their mission, vision, tagline and objective, according to De Silva are summed up in the phrase ‘Save a life’
• Suwa Seriya has also set itself a goal which is to bring down the average response time across the entire country to below 10 minutes
• The Tata Company in India has promised Suwa Seriya 50 more ambulances

A green and white coloured ambulance service has scaled the heights in saving lives and winning hearts and minds of millions of Sri Lankans. 

This service is rated high and above anything else callers who are in need are attended to promptly.                     
Only last month (20), 1990 Suwa Seriya (SS) or the National free hospital care emergency service, touched a milestone, treating their – two millionth patient!

Dr. Harsha De Silva, founder of this service, celebrating this feat made a post on X, previously twitter. Dr. De Silva’s post said, “At 00:40 on 20 October 2024 #1990SuwaSeriya attended to the 2,000,000th hospitalization incident. What an achievement from just a dream 11 years ago, pilot launch 9 years ago and complete island wide service 5 years ago. @DumindraR (Chairman) @kcsdesilva (CEO) and team take a bow!”.
In fact, a service that took off as a Southern and Western province-only, six-years ago, expanded by leaps and bounds, growing into a real island wide service.    

“In 2018 the Government of India funded us with another 209 ambulances to cover the whole island. In 2018 the Act of Parliament (Act No. 18 of 2018) was enacted, setting up the ‘1990 Suwa seriya Foundation. With this the Board of Directors came in and we started running under the leadership of the government. It’s a semi-government entity because it operates as a foundation run by a board”
- Sohan De Silva, 
CEO of Suwa Seriya

Thanks to Suwa Seriya, the hospital system spends less, the patient recovers faster and the patient is able to make a return to work

How it all started 

Initially, the people of India gave a grant of 88 ambulances, according to Sohan De Silva, CEO of SS.
De Silva added, “They wanted us to show commitment. And with that the then government (2015-2020 Govt.) started setting up the foundation to show the commitment. And also, initially it was in 2016 that we set up 88 ambulances in southern and western services, set up a call centre and started the service with the operations fund for one year.

“So in 2018 the Government of India funded us with another 209 ambulances to cover the whole island. In 2018 the Act of Parliament (Act No. 18 of 2018) was enacted, setting up the ‘1990 Suwa seriya Foundation. With this the Board of Directors came in and we started running under the leadership of the government. It’s a semi-government entity because it operates as a foundation run by a board,” he explained. 

Their mission, vision, tagline and objective, according to De Silva are summed up in the phrase ‘Save a life’.
“Whether a person is on the road, at home, or in a field, we have a set window to go to the patient, treat the patient, safely transport the patient, and move him or her to the nearest suitable hospital. If we can work another 100 hours to save one more life we’ll do it. This is a concept I try to promote within my staff. If I can wear this uniform, value it, and respect it then the same respect should be given to the staff,” he went on, while being clad in their uniform and promoting his staff too to value and respect it. 

Tribute and testimony

Only a few months ago, Thanushi Siriwardena’s mother experienced a sudden fall. The incident was reported to Suwa Seriya. The staff of the ambulance service impressed Siriwardena and her family members; the staff going on to offer a treatment that exceeded their expectations. 

Siriwardena, recalling that incident, elaborated, “After my mother fell and broke her thigh bone, I immediately called the service. The team not only arrived promptly, but also provided clear and professional instructions on how to handle the situation until they arrived. They advised me on the do’s and don’ts, which was immensely helpful. When they arrived, they handled my mother with the utmost care. Their compassion and expertise were evident as they swiftly transported her to Sri Jayewardenepura General Hospital, where she was admitted directly from the ETU (Emergency Treatment Unit)”.

Lauding this service profusely, she went on, “I want to express my deepest gratitude to the 1990 Suwa Seriya Ambulance Service for their exceptional care and professionalism. The excellent service provided by the Suwa Seriya team was an immense help to us during such a stressful time. I can’t thank them enough for their prompt response, professionalism, and the genuine care they showed towards my mother. They truly made a difference and we are incredibly grateful for their assistance”.

After my mother fell and broke her thigh bone, I immediately called the service. The team not only arrived promptly, but also provided clear and professional instructions on how to handle the situation until they arrived. They advised me on the do’s and don’ts, which was immensely helpful”
-Thanushi Siriwardena 
(A patron who obtained the service) 

Message to the masses

The Suwa Seriya CEO in his plea to the people urged, “I wish to say one thing to the public. We did a project called ‘Menna Handa Denna Ida’, or make way for the ambulance. There’s life depending on the movement of the ambulance, especially during traffic hours; the time when we face a lot of issues. During the last few weeks, for example, there’s been a lot of traffic. If private vehicle owners cooperate with us, we can reach the patient faster. Today you may be blocking an ambulance, but tomorrow, it could be someone in your family. This message needs to reach the people”. 

Technical issues 

They have 322 ambulances, but some of the vehicles have technical issues. However, they’re functioning at full capacity. At the end of 2023 and the start of 2024, they experienced a challenge when some of the staffers began to immigrate. Also, in 2023 they celebrated another benchmark. In the earlier years, they used to send Suwa Seriya staff to India for training. This was a major milestone for them. They signed an agreement with the Ragama Medical Faculty to set up the Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT) diploma programme in Sri Lanka.

Suwa Seriya ambulances are stationed at a police station. Being at the police station enables them to have quicker access to these vehicles. Additionally, during disasters, the service offered is more efficient because with the police being in the back ground, it makes them coordinate, communicate and carry out their duties faster. 
Suwa Seriya enjoys a stable financial position at present, thanks to 2024 being a year where they received much support. “We’re receiving funds from the treasury and the private sector is also contributing. We’re recruiting people and sending them for training. There was a small break in recruitment due to the elections, but now things are back on track. Another positive thing is that some people who left Suwa Seriya are asking if they can return,” De Silva said.

Two-millionth patient milestone

De Silva, recounting their two-millionth patient, narrated, “The 2 millionth one was a victim who had experienced a fall. I think it was in Ja-Ela. But for us, memories fade, because people call us in their darkest hour. When a person is in difficulty, we don’t look at it that way. What we see is the commitment and dedication of our staff, which has allowed us to handle 2 million emergencies in a very short period. 

“That’s why we didn’t celebrate. We didn’t have a party, cut a cake, or anything like that. We’re a service that’s there to deal with emergencies related to the public. A person’s emergency can’t be something we celebrate. Similarly, a few months ago, in July, we celebrated our anniversary. Did you see any cake-cutting parties, functions, media shows, or anything like that? All we did was have our staff in every district go to a temple, church, mosque and kovil. We prayed together as a team for blessings for the country. We didn’t spend a single cent on celebrating our anniversary,” he added. 

Daily Mirror’s efforts taken to obtain details of Suwa Seriya’s two-millionth patient proved futile.
Commenting on the demand for free pre-hospital emergency services, De Silva had this to say: “It’s critical because 26% of our patients are associated with road traffic accidents, and 38% of the patients have suffered cardiac arrests or strokes. So if you look at it, more than two-thirds of the cases need to be attended to immediately. We are planning to bring down the average response time across the entire country to below 10 minutes. We also know that the country has been facing financial difficulties, so we cannot ask for funds from the government. Therefore, we wrote to the chairman of Tata which was generous enough to say that he would give us 50 ambulances”. 

Challenges 

Speaking about daunting challenges that exist, he said, “There is a problem with the retention of staff because of the salaries and the cost of living. But the thing is, apart from that, there is a dedicated team that looks beyond their paycheck. That is why we are operating at this level. Treating 2 million incidents in a short time, we handle more than 1,000 incidents a day. We answer 5,000 plus calls, and 99.8% of the calls are answered after the first ring. If we miss a call, we call back. You can have a system, but if you don’t have a dedicated team, nothing will happen. You need to give a lot of credit to this staff because that’s why I don’t want even my photograph in the article”.

The ambulance service also ran into financial difficulties last year. The Treasury announced that it was unable to provide full funding for this facility in 2023.

Responding to this issue, he had this to say: “During the pandemic there were lapses in maintenance because workshops were closed and there was a shortage of vehicle spare parts due to import restrictions. This was the situation in 2020 and 2021. In 2022 the country faced a financial crisis. After all that, when we finally entered 2023, we had to correct everything that had been put on the back burner; such as maintenance and staff training. We had to do all of that in 2023. It was a do-or-die situation. You can’t run vehicles forever without full maintenance, so we had to address that. We needed the funding to keep the service running”.

Impact on SL’s health care system 

“If a patient is taken in a tuk-tuk or a private vehicle, a lot of things could happen. But here the treatment starts at the patient’s doorstep or on the road. We treat the patient in keeping with the proper guidelines and there is an emergency doctor always advising our staff from the call centre allowing us to provide the necessary treatment. We treat the patient in the proper way. Hence, when the patient reaches the ETU, the time healthcare professionals at the hospital need to spend on the patient along with the equipment and medication that must be used is limited because we have properly handled the transferring of the patient,” he explained.
“This means that after the recovery phase, the patient can be moved to a ward and sent back home; eventually boosting the patient’s hope that he or she can return to work soon. Because of Suwa Seriya, the hospital system spends less, the patient recovers faster, and the patient returns to work soon; which also positively impacts the GDP. This is very important,” de Silva revealed.

Advances in technology 

Despite all the good work done, Suwa Seriya encounters criticism. “We take criticism in a positive manner because we look into every complaint we receive. We don’t have eyes on the field, so whatever the public tells us we take it positively. It could be something we need to correct, or it could be something false, but we view it with a positive attitude. We investigate it and if there are any corrective measures needed, we attend to it,” he said. 
Suwa Seriya is an end-to-end, technology-driven organization. 

“Many people are worried that jobs will be lost due to advances in technology, but jobs will not be lost. It’s all about the efficiency that technology brings. By increasing efficiency, we can save many lives. The role of technology is to save more lives,” De Silva divulged. 

From the perspective of Suwa Seriya offering a life-saving service, he said that the service can be improved by adding more vehicles to the fleet of ambulances. He said that if there are more vehicles, the response time to calls would reduce.

“The average response time in Colombo is about eight and a half minutes. For outstation areas it varies between 12 to 13 minutes, depending on the location. Yes coverage is available island-wide, but what happens is that if the nearest ambulance is unavailable the next nearest ambulance, which is the fastest, must be dispatched. In less populated areas, it may take a bit more time. When we increase the ambulance coverage the response time will go down,” he explained. 

The future 

The Suwa Seriya CEO concluded by saying, “The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is also gifting us with 45 ambulances. Additionally, there are some donors from other countries and also individuals who are in the process of donating more ambulances. You may have seen in the newspapers that the cabinet has approved a donation. So hopefully early next year, we will be receiving those vehicles. I’m confident that we’ll bring our total fleet of vehicles to 450 and also have a few backup vehicles. Many more donors are expected to make commitments this year in terms of getting the needed vehicles”.