A century of family health
From the first Health Unit in Kalutara in 1926 to the modern Family Health Bureau — a record of how Sri Lanka built one of the strongest maternal and child health programmes in the region.
A century of progress
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1926
MOH system established
An organized effort to provide maternal and child health services commenced with the introduction of the Health Unit System in 1926, Kalutara being the 1st health unit established with a Medical Officer of Health as the in-charge.
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1965
Family planning becomes national policy
Government accepted family planning as a national policy and it was integrated with the already developed Maternal and Child Health services provided by the Ministry of Health.
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1968
MCH Bureau established
A separate division was established within the Ministry of Health to implement the programme throughout the country. This was initially designated as the Maternal and Child Health Bureau.
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1972
Renamed the Family Health Bureau
The MCH Bureau was re-designated the Family Health Bureau (FHB) to highlight the integrated nature of the MCH/FP services. The FHB then became the central organization of the Ministry of Health responsible for planning, coordination, monitoring and evaluation of the MCH/FP services, also referred to the Family Health Programme.
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1986
Director — Maternal & Child Health
The post of Assistant Director was upgraded to Director / Maternal and Child Health and a comprehensive information management system for Maternal and Child Health was established.
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2012
National Policy on Maternal and Child Health
National Policy on Maternal and Child Health published.