Uphold standards of medical degrees - GMOA

Nadira GUNATILLEKE

Local students who obtained medical degrees in the past from foreign universities and are now practicing in State hospitals and private hospitals as doctors are well qualified and competent because they went abroad on scholarships given by the Sri Lankan Government and studied in reputed foreign universities. But now medical degrees can be bought from foreign institutes, Government Medical Officers' Association Vice President (GMOA) Dr. Anuruddha Padeniya said.

Addressing a special press briefing held at the GMOA Head Office, Colombo 7 yesterday Dr. Padeniya said some foreign medical degree holders who are waiting to pass the ERMP examination conducted by the Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC) have not sat for their Advanced Level Examination. According to a study conducted by SLMA on a sample of foreign medical degree holders who failed ERMP found six of them did not have A/L qualifications and 12 of them had done their Advanced Level Examination in the Arts stream. Another 119 of them did not have qualifications to enter local universities.

Dr. Padeniya pointed out that unlike in the past, now there are 'institutes' all over the world which give 'medical degrees' for money to anyone. Exams similar to ERMP are conduct by other countries in the world and they call this examination in other names such as PLAB in UK. In UK, only seven percent get through this examination while the rate of the number of students who pass ERMP in Sri Lanka is around 40 percent.

A student can sit unlimited number of times for ERMP. If a local medical student fail his/her final year examination for over six times he or she has to go home without becoming a doctor. Therefore ERMP (Act 16 Examination) is a must to become a safe doctor and the standard should be kept as it is.

The GMOA is neutral when it comes to establishing private medical faculties. The people of this country (Parliament) have the sole right to decide whether they need or do not need private medical faculties. The GMOA is only concerned about the standards which produce a safe doctor because it is the public who will be in danger if the standards go down enabling anyone to become a doctor. Diagnosing a disease and treating it is not something simple or can be done without required intelligence and capability.