The GMOA's assurances

The Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) has assured President Mahinda Rajapaksa of providing a quality service to the public and we may be echoing the sentiments of the majority of the people by requesting that this truly be the case. It need hardly be said that state sector medical doctors are carrying out a most invaluable service to the public and that the 'health of the nation' depends almost entirely on their ability to provide services of immense and unquestionable quality.

It needs to be placed on record that the state health services are far more stable than they used to be, for instance, in the mid eighties, when veritable wild cat strikes were rampant in the state hospital system. Those were times when one tended to believe that the GMOA was bereft of a conscience. The 'strike weapon' was resorted to with such frequency that the general public was left wondering whether the doctors of those times had ever set their eyes on the hallowed Hippocratic Oath; that celebrated pledge by the physicians of yore to the people, promising the best of medical care and attention. Incidentally, family doctors in particular, of some decades past, were in the habit of displaying the fabled Oath at their doorways; a practice which the doctors of present times must resort to without a reminder.

However, there is no denying that we are living in vastly improved times with regard to the stability of the state health sector. It is clear that the 'strike weapon' is resorted to with less alacrity by state sector doctors of today and we hope for the sake of the people that things remain this way. Ideally, strikes should never be launched by state sector doctors because they carry on their shoulders the health and well being of the majority of the people. It is the duty of the doctor to care for the people and to bestow on them services of quality and this mission should never be lost sight of, whatever the doctors' squabbles with the authorities.

Given this backdrop, it is a matter for relief that the GMOA is going on record as assuring the public a quality service. We believe it would be quite in order to request the medical profession to ensure that, first and foremost, it is in the best of health and spirits while taking on these challenges, because quite a few doctors, it could be observed, are always on the run, seeing patients in numerous places, and that too in very daunting numbers.

Nevertheless, it could be said with a degree of assurance that the doctors are not few who work self-sacrificially for the well being of their patients. May this species of medical officer increase steadily, is our hope. We are also fully aware that the state medical sector is spread into the farthest nooks of this country and that it is manned by doctors who discharge their services to the people amid the most trying privations and even the gravest dangers to life and limb. We salute these courageous and duty-conscious doctors and request them to keep up the good work because the well being of the country is in their hands.

However, there is work aplenty for the state sector doctor. Non-communicable diseases are on the rise in the country, for instance, and we are glad that the issue is receiving the attention of the President as well as of the GMOA. Likewise, the health of the young and of children is being brought into focus.

There needs to be forward thinking on these questions and it is to the degree to which we have a strong and stable state health sector that they could be addressed. Hopefully, a vigorous programme would be launched by the concerned parties to highlight suitable lifestyle changes because non-communicable diseases are usually occasioned by injurious lifestyles.

We urge the GMOA to work in close consultation with the state for the purposes of maintaining the stability of state healthcare services. Inasmuch as the GMOA has to be sensitive to the needs of the country, the state must ensure that government doctors are provided their legitimate needs and are not allowed to labour under the impression that are being treated with disrespect. Power-drunk politicians who try to ride rough shod over state medical personnel, for instance, must be brought to justice.