The latest request by the GMOA is to permit government medical
officers and consultants in government hospitals to see patients in
private hospitals before 4 p.m. by permitting them to leave during their
office hours, for which they draw a salary.
This is yet another great service to the nation offered by GMOA. It
claims that many foreign doctors who work in private hospitals are of
sub-standard competence. (In recent months their visas are given only
for three months, and there are hardly any foreign applicants when
advertised, as the very short term is uneconomical and a source of
harassment). GMOA would no doubt ask that the fees during such office
hours be paid to the government hospital from which they come. GMOA
doctors must be paid car mileage for the actual (not hypothetical)
travelling for such visits.
It must be said that very many doctors in government hospitals are
very dedicated and give their best services to the patients. The Colombo
South Hospital and many base hospitals in the provinces are very much
appreciated for the excellent service provided by doctors. The quality
would invariably decrease when doctors go out during working hours. This
is a sacrifice the poor government hospital patients have to pay for the
new service to the nation, which they should gladly consent to.
No doubt the GMOA is the most powerful trade union among the top of
the range professionals.
They are paid several allowances – disturbance, telephone, fuel etc
which increase their remuneration very high, compared to other
government servants with similar academic and practical competence.
They have their feet in both camps – the public sector assured
employment plus private practice. Very few if any, opt for either one.
They wish to serve the poor and not so poor to the maximum. Over the
years it has obtained benefits for members which are for the good of the
public. The public in turn has always continued to fund their studies
upto and beyond the MBBS including fully paid overseas scholarships.
There were a few mishaps on the way like when the government some
years back decided not to guarantee government employment to all doctors
who passed out and instead encouraged them to go private. This was later
withdrawn and the public were told there really aren't enough doctors in
the government service. In the Supplementary estimates approved in July
by Parliament, there is nothing for the GMOA members. This is very
unfair. Private practice was resorted to again for the GMOA to help the
nation. When in the waiting halls of private hospitals for the number to
be called, patients cannot help but multiply the number by the fee and
think what a service is being done to the nation by three minute
consultations.
Some halls had numbers appearing in lighting over each door. This was
bad for the patients and it was stopped in most places. Doctors working
in government hospitals work so hard and are late for their appointments
in private hospitals, though may be some are visiting several private
hospitals on their way to the last.
Delays cannot be due to vehicle breakdown. Doctors get duty free
concessions to import new vehicles every five years.
D. S. Goonetilleke- Welawatte
I was delighted to read the press announcement of the Child
Development and Women's Affairs Ministry in the Daily News of September
20, 2012 that the Ministry proposes to set up 335 Children and Women's
Units at Divisional Secretariat level to combat child abuse and
harassment of women and the establishment of a National Committee on
Women with the responsibility for initiating policy decisions, drafting
laws and regulations and lifting the position of women. Besides, the
decision of the Child Protection Authority to seek the assistance of
eminent personnel in various institutions involved in these areas by
adopting a multi-sectoral approach is indeed praiseworthy.
I have been writing regularly to the national newspapers including
the Daily News pointing out the urgent need to establish institutions
such as these, to fight against child abuse as the government has
already done what it could do to provide for the welfare of children and
their families and to lift the living standards of the villagers in
remote areas. The government cannot alone handle this highly complex
problem of child abuse and crime against women in the country. I am
confident that with the innovations the Ministry has introduced or
proposed to do, it may be possible to reduce the incidence of child
abuse cases, in particular.
The decision to hold the inaugural International Day of the Girl
Child on October 11, 2012, and thereafter each year, to make parents
aware of child abuse caused by sexual exploitation, enforced labour,
neglect and punishment in various forms of punishment and torture and
the steps already taken and proposed to do by the government, will be an
added booster.
Dr. Mathu Hikkaduwa Liyanage – Hikkaduwa
The Menik Farm is now closed. That ends the chapter of the displaced
Tamil civilians of the North. The government has re-settled the
thousands of people who were on the farm as war refugees, in their own
homesteads. This milestone event is proof that the conflict situation is
over and that peace prevails once again in the country. It is also
evidence of the commitment of the government to resettle the Tamil
civilians who were displaced by the civil war.
At one time the Menik Farm was the largest camp for those displaced
due to LTTE terrorist activities in the North. The camp was set-up in
May 2009 to shelter the Tamil civilians who fled LTTE terror. They had
been in the clutches of the LTTE for years without means of escape.
Finally they took the brave decision and 250,000 people waded across the
Nandikadal Lagoon into government territory. The military launched an
immediate humanitarian operation on the orders of President Mahinda
Rajapaksa to assist these refugees.
For almost three and a half years, the government provided these
displaced people with shelter, food, clothing, health-care, water and
sanitation, and even education facilities for the children.
The delay in solving the re-settlement issue was due to the deming
process, which had to be completed. The LTTE had buried thousands of
land mines in the area and they had to be first cleared. It definitely
was not that the government was lethargic or purposely delaying the
matter.
Just one thing remains to be done now. Some families from the
Kapailavu area in the Mullaitivu District cannot return to their
original homelands, as a military camp has been established there. For
security reasons, it is essential that the camp be there.
These people are being located in state land in proximity. They
should be apprised of the circumstances and encouraged to manage their
new resettlement. It is not fair of them to be insisting their original
homesteads.
I believe that if these people could be paid some sort of
compensation in addition, they would also be quiet happy.
Harshi Nadie Perera – Piliyandala
I was very happy to read the interesting article about former LSSP
politician Bala Tampoe written by Ishara Jayawardena. It was quite
interesting to know about Bala’s history.
Unfortunately the writer had missed two important points. He
contested the Colombo Central seat on the LSSP ticket in the March or
July 1960 general elections but was defeated. The second point was that
he crossed over from the LSSP in 1964 with former LSSP MP for Dehiowita
Edmund Samarakkody. He was dead against the LSSP joining the SLFP.
Lionel Staples Gunaratne, - Sydney,
Australia.
On August 15, 1964 I sailed to England on a government scholarship,
on a ship owned by Aristotle Onassis, the richest man in Greece. He ran
a shuttle service to Australia ferrying mainly housewives and minor
labour from Greece. He also owned oil tankers (and later married the
wife of John Kennedy, President of the USA). The ship was anchored in
the old harbour and my wife and I had to take a small boat and climb the
perilous gangway in the dark. There were other Sri Lankans, students
from the Arts Faculties also on scholarship, an Obstetrician on
retirement and a father taking his two daughters to Lourdes, all booked
by a Greek travel agent. I had thought it interesting to go by sea and
arranged passage with Thomas Cooks in Colombo. The journey took 16 days.
I like to share an experience of a forgotten age. I am now 80 years.
When we boarded, dinner had been served and the purser gave us
sandwiches. Though we had first class tickets, we were on a deck way
down below, amidst the Greek labourers in a tiny cabin with a porthole.
There were two bunk beds on top of each other. My wife was seasick all
the way.
I roamed all over the ship and organized a farewell concert of
harvesting paddy and reciting kavi, the night before dis-embarking. I
remember a huge brawny butcher, a charming retired hospital matron and
an advertising executive. We sat together for meals, mostly noodles,
tomato ketchup, buns, small packets of butter and cheese and mounds of
salad. The butcher sat with me, amazed by the mountain of food on his
plate.
The Greeks did not speak English. They were loud and noisy except for
a fellow wearing a black hat silent like a psychopath sitting alone on
deck always in the same place. I was scared he would steal behind and
suddenly flip me overboard. It was late in the night when we arrived at
Aden and passengers had to buy things in the dark, stepping dangerously
on boats crowding the sides of the ship. I bought a cheap camera, a
coloured film roll and a portable tape-recorder when we docked at Suez
the next day. The Greeks bought a lot of things - radios, plastic
kitchenware, dolls etc. and the next morning was a cacophony. Sailing
down the Suez Canal was very interesting watching from the bow. I saw
the red sand of the Sinai Desert on the right, green fields, date
palm-trees and people riding camels on the left. This was to be a last
time when the six-day war with Israel began and Nasser sank ships in the
Canal blocking it for a long time.
I had trouble with the Greek tour guide from the start because he
ignored my first class ticket. The ship docked at Piraeus and we stayed
there for three days, went on a tour of Athens, saw the famous ruins,
and eventually to Benghazi on a dirty steamer. Here too my wife and I
were put in a tiny cabin down below. Next to us was an Australian vet
with his wife. He had a stomach ache and the wife urgently consulted me.
I gave aspirin and verbal therapy. It worked magic. The wife insisted in
paying but I refused. While in Athens, I sent what I assumed by my hand
signals at the post office, an air letter to my brother to meet me in
London. We travelled in the Rapido Express through Europe and were taken
to the Vatican and saw the ancient arena of the gladiators etc. While on
the train in a second-class birth, I asked the travel agent to refund my
ticket. There was a row and he threatened to throw me out. At Calais, he
whispered something to the Port Health Officer who took my wife and me
to a room and examined us for malaria. We almost missed the train to
London and did not know anything about our baggage.
The train arrived at Victoria Railway station after midnight.
Relatives met my fellow passengers and soon my wife and I were alone in
that huge place. There was no baggage. I suddenly saw a forlorn suitcase
at the far end of the platform. The last train from Dover had dumped it
there. There was no sign of my brother. My wife was in tears. I
remembered a friend and went to the phone booth. To my horror, there
were not only numbers but also letters. I read the instructions
carefully and dialed operator and told him, “I am a doctor. This is my
first visit to your country. I want to contact a friend (Dr. Kingsley
Ratnanather at Bexley Hospital) but I do not know his number or how to
telephone from this booth”. This was my inaugural experience of courtesy
and British efficiency. He told me to wait. After a minute or so he
rang, told me to put 25p and press the button. Kingsley came on line
immediately and asked me to wait there. I looked up from the booth and
saw a huge clock on the roof and told him that I shall be under the
clock, when to my horror I saw several. I began to flit from clock to
clock lugging the suitcase. Kingsley came with his wife in about an
hour, and we soon ate hot rice and curry at his house but was shocked to
find the bed-sheet and covers freezing cold, as if taken out of the
fridge.
Kingsley fixed me a locum job at the hospital. I travelled by
chauffeur doing psychiatric clinics. I returned to it after my exam and
a few days before returning home, went to Regent Street to buy an
electric Singer sewing machine that was heavily advertised. The Agent
sold me I assumed was a new one but when I went to my flat discovered I
had been tricked with a used one. I typed a letter to Singer
Headquarters and threatened to complain to Scotland Yard for
investigating fraud in business.
The manager drove to Bexley Hospital, apologized profusely, assured
he will ship a brand new machine, invited my wife for lessons and asked
her to practice on the old one till then. I played hell with the Regent
Street agent.
I was living at Stratham travelling daily from Tooting Bec
underground to London. One day, I was on the ground floor of a double
decker seated with an Italian and his wife carrying a child. He had left
their pram in the gangway and when the black conductor asked to keep it
in the luggage compartment, he imperiously said, “You do it.”
The young man took the pram, and when the bus moved, I saw he had
left it on the pavement. The Italian went in rage and hit him. He hit
back with the ticket machine. There was pandemonium. I rang the bell.
The bus reached the tube station. I looked out of the window for the
pram. It had vanished. I wrote to the London Transport Board describing
the incident and asked them to defray the loss because they had a
contract to take also the pram. I was immediately invited to attend an
inquiry but my wife was scared blacks would set upon me. In any case, it
was time to return home.
Kingsley Heendeniya, Email
|
