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Health Ministry gets tough on errant doctors

by Bharatha Malawaraarachchi

The Health Secretary Thilak Ranaviraja has requested the Sri Lanka's High Commissioner in the United Kingdom to request the British Medical Council to stop registering Sri Lankan Medical Graduates who have gone there on Government scholarships and stayed back.

The Health Secretary's letter sent last week to High Commissioner Mangala Moonasinghe asking him to urge the Medical Council in the UK not to entertain these Sri Lanka Medical Graduates over-staying in foreign countries dishonouring their obligations, or make representation to cancel the registration if they are already registered since they cannot secure employment without getting registered under the UK Medical Council", the Secretary states in his letter.

According to the Ministry reports, there are almost 60 doctors who have not returned up to date. The scholarships were for higher training on paid leave. The Government incurred Rs 1.5 million on each of them and so far only four of them had reimbursed the Government, Ministry sources said.

This year alone, the Ministry has spent a sum of Rs 145 million for Postgraduate Training of the Medical Officers.

The majority of these doctors who have not returned are anaesthetists while the others include surgeons, radiologists, psychiatrists etc.

The defaulters are already considered to have vacated their posts, but action will be taken against them in any case, Ministry sources affirmed.

Mr. Ranaviraja in his letter states that the problem of brain drain in Sri Lanka has caused tremendous difficulties in the field of health sector. "Although, we have trained an adequate number of specialists, we are now compelled to hire Medical specialists from other countries to serve in our hospitals", the Secretary states.

The GMOA has also expressed their willingness to support the endeavour of the Health Ministry to bring down these defaulting doctors.

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