Sri Lankan health care provision and medical education: a discussion.

My elective was spent at a teaching hospital in Galle, in Sri Lanka. My time was spent shadowing final year students in the specialties of general medicine and paediatrics. This period provided me with much food for thought in comparing and contrasting the health service in Sri Lanka with that of the UK and also considering the differences in the style of medical education. In addition, during my stay, I was able to gain some appreciation of the political and organisational problems faced by a country in the midst of a civil war. In this report, I have attempted to integrate an account of my observations with a discussion of the thoughts and emotions that I experienced while working in a developing country. Studying in Sri Lanka facilitated my appreciation of facets of British health care and medical education that I had not previously considered. However, fewer resources do not necessarily mean poorer patient care: could Britain have something to learn from the Sri Lankan Health Service?