The Health Ministry issued a special circular on Monday in connection with the healthy food menu that should be served at ministry functions, Health Services Director General Dr. Palitha Mahipala said.
He said a healthy food menu should be served all conferences, seminars, workshops, etc. organised by the Health Ministry and all the other institutions come under its purview.
Addressing the media in Colombo yesterday he said that the same circular will be issued to all state hospitals soon and in addition to strict laws to ensure that only healthy food is served to in-house patients at state hospitals and the visitors buying food from hospital canteens.
Meanwhile, the ministry sources said that Health Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne will submit a Cabinet paper soon to introduce a common healthy menu/food items which should be served at all events in state institutions. A National Policy will bring on the subject.
The objective of introducing this policy is to reduce the number of patients getting admitted to state hospitals due to Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs).
About 68 percent of the patients admitted to state hospitals get hospitalised due to NCDs. School teachers will be given a special training on controlling NCDs and a book on - ‘Let us be healthy’ - will be distributed among schoolchildren, the sources added.
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