Hospital administration, like ships without sailors

Chesmal Siriwardhana

COLOMBO: Health Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva, compared the administration of several hospitals to ships without sailors at the helm, drifting in any direction where the wind takes them.

The Minister was speaking at the handing over of appointment letters to 784 new doctors, who will start working as interns in 42 hospitals.

De Silva congratulated the new interns on their appointment, adding that he was happy to have a large batch of interns who will become fully qualified MBBS doctors in a year who can be posted to various hospitals.

He said no matter how many doctors are added to the profession, there was an endless demand for more doctors.

"I am at a loss on how to fill this bottomless jar," the Minister said.

He said under Mahinda Chinthana, the Government has done immense work for the betterment of the health sector. He said hospital infrastructure has been upgraded and modified to meet the modern demands, new equipment purchased for various hospitals and more health care professionals were added to the sector.

Minister de Silva emphasised on the fact that Sri Lanka's life expectancy has gone up to 74 years and that the country has an aging population which demands more doctors to cater for various health needs of the people.

He added that the medical care provided to the public should be free and be of higher standard.

The Minister said 26 doctors who received appointments as interns were foreign graduates. These graduates and their parents have gone through a lot of hardships and spent a lot of foreign currency to get educated as doctors.

The Minister added that he wants to treat all medical graduates alike as the country needs more doctors.

About 400 foreign graduates are yet to be given internship appointments, according to the Minister. He said these graduates are wasting valuable time and are unable to serve the country not due to their fault, but due to some other circumstances.

He and the Ministry were putting in their best efforts to resolve this issue at Medical Council and Parliamentary levels to ensure that these 400 graduates will be absorbed into the medical service in the future.

Dr. Athula Kahandaliyanage, DGHS and Dr. P. G. Maheepala, Director of Tertiary Care also participated.