Dr. Wimal Karandagoda is a Senior Medical Administrator who has made a landmark contribution to bring in Quality culture to the health care sector of Sri Lanka. He has forty years of experience as a Medical Officer and a Senior Medical Administrator in the Ministry of Health working as Directors of Provincial and Regional Health Services and in Teaching Hospitals. He demonstrated his skills in Change management during transformations in the Private Health care industry and worked over nine years as the Director Medical Services of Lanka Hospitals ( formally Apollo Hospital) and nearly three years at Durdans Hospital, both JCI accredited hospitals in Sri Lanka.
Dr. Karandagoda obtained his MBBS from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka in 1981 & Masters of Medical Administration from the Post Graduate Institute; University of Colombo in 1996.
He is also a scholar of the Health Services Management Centre of the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom, where he obtained his basic training in health planning and management in 1990. Furthermore, he has been trained in Manila, the Philippines and Malaysia as a Productivity Specialist organized by the Asian Productivity Organization. Dr Karandagoda has followed the Flagship course on Health Sector Reforms and Sustainable Financing in World Bank Washington DC. He has served as a member of the National Salaries & Cadre Commission of Sri Lanka from 2016 to 2018.
His wealth of experience in health administration paved the way to introduce and implement an innovative approach in Health Management: “Quality Healthcare through Productivity”, and leading the hospitals he managed to receive National Productivity Awards and Sri Lanka National Quality Awards. This concept is now practiced in most private and government health sectors in Sri Lanka and in many countries in the developing world to care for people with dignity and compassion and also ensuring quality and patient safety,.
Dr. Karandagoda was a key resource person for JICA to train health care staff in Sri Lanka and abroad. He is a trainer of Quality Management in some of the Medical Schools of the Universities of Sri Lanka, National Productivity Secretariat and the Directorate of Healthcare Quality & Safety of the Ministry of Health.
He has shared his knowledge and experience as a short term consultant in Health Care Management for World Health Organization, World Bank, APO & JICA. He is a key resource person for Asia Africa Knowledge Co Creation Programme implementing change management focusing on TQM in many African Countries.