Go the extra mile, docs

Healthcare and Nutrition Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva has forthrightly broached some issues pertaining in the main to the medical profession of this country which call for urgent scrutiny and discussion by both the State and the public. We hope such an exercise would lead to an early resolution of these problems which have been weighing on the polity for quite some time.

As an answer to the seemingly perennial salaries issue of Government Medical Officers, the Healthcare Minister has proposed a salary hike for those among this category of professionals who work "full time" in the State health sector.

At present, Government doctors are given the opportunity of engaging in private practice within limits, but what usually happens - as the Minister explained - is that they are far "too tired" to give of their best to the State health sector. Consequently, the State health sector suffers a degree of neglect and the patients who patronise the system are starved of the desired extent of medical attention.

The prime concern of a Government, however, is the well being of the people and it is obliged to ensure that the patients who throng State hospitals - who are mainly poor - are not deprived of the best medical attention. As is well known, it is the affluent who mainly patronise the plush private hospitals springing - up in the metropolis and other major towns.

The State hospitals are the refuge of the poor and the economically-underprivileged who constitute the mass of our population. Accordingly, allowing the State health sector to sink increasingly into the mire of neglect is tantamount to turning a blind eye on the condition of the ordinary people of this country and this is a situation no progressive Government could allow to come to pass.

Therefore, the Healthcare Minister's worries need to be addressed and we hope the State would have a good look at his proposals aimed at bettering the Government doctors' financial situation. We wish to state unequivocally that the Government Medical Officers' prime concern should be the State health sector and that their energies should be solely channelled to its upkeep and sustenance.

Ideally, there should be no half-way house between the State sector and private practice for these medical officers. The State hospitals should be their sole preoccupation. Enhanced salaries and perks could enable these doctors to, hopefully, give of their best to the ordinary people of this country.

A connected issue is the "brain drain" among our professionals and here too the problem is acute in regard to Medical Officers. Much is made of the fact that the financial prospects of doctors in this country are not comparatively bright but we need to take into consideration the massive public funds that go towards providing these personnel with a medical education. Shouldn't the personnel concerned consider it morally obligatory to work for their country in return for the substantial funds the State lavishes on them?

As is well known, quite a few Government Medical Officers go missing when they go abroad for their post-graduate education in particular. Aren't they morally obliged to return to Lanka and work in the State medical sector in recompense for the financial support extended to them by the State for their medical education? This is a matter of conscience and we hope our medical officers would pause awhile and think on these things.

We do not see any point in our countrymen or diaspora abroad waxing lyrical about their patriotism and sentimental links with Sri Lanka. What is essential is that they work for the well being of Lanka, here and now, going more than the extra mile.