Doctors to be gradually released

Nadira Gunatilleke

There are 104 MBBS doctors serving IDPs in welfare camps at present. Once the resettlement process is over, these doctors will be attached to State hospitals in the North and East, a Healthcare and Nutrition Ministry spokesman said.

According to the spokesman, the doctors will be gradually released from serving in welfare camps with the resettlement of IDPs which is now going on apace.

Until then, 100 final year medical students attached to the Medical Faculty of the University of Jaffna will be made available in all State hospitals in the North. There is a shortage of doctors in the State hospitals in the North at the moment because the Ministry had to abandon its plan to provide adequate Tamil speaking doctors for State hospitals in the North and East due to the protest of the Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) few months back.

The Ministry planned to supply adequate doctors to State hospitals in the North and East through assigning Tamil speaking MBBS doctors who pass out from the Medical Faculty of the Jaffna University to those hospital for a period of one year. Under the program it was planned to provide the service of Tamil speaking doctors for the Tamil speaking population while enabling the doctors to serve their own people for a limited period of one year.

The program was abandoned due to the GMOA protests.