GMOA to work out its own protocol for doctors

The Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) said yesterday it would compile its own report on the controversial private medical college in Malabe and would introduce a protocol on the minimum standards required to practice medicine in Sri Lanka.GMOA spokesman Dr. Upul Gunasekara said the protocol would be based on guidelines established by the World Health Organisation and Indian medical standards. He said the GMOA report would be out before the Health Ministry’s five member committee report which was due next month.

GMOA Assistant Secretary Dr. Sankalpa Marasinghe said the South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine (SAITM) had not adhered to the conditions in the gazette notification issued in August this year and that the gazette notification did not directly stipulate the exact time duration by which some of the conditions needed to be fulfilled.

He said one month after the gazette notice was issued SAITM was expected to submit information on the recruitment of appropriate academic and administrative staff, information on the corporate plan for the next five years as well as the deed of trust relating to the establishment of SAITM.

“We have reason to believe that none of these requirements have been fulfilled by the institution,” Dr. Marasinghe said.

Dr. Gunesekara said several parents had made complaints to the GMOA and that all doctors who had enrolled their children at SAITM had taken them out of the private institution.

Dr. Marasinghe alleged that the institution was not affiliated to the Russian Nizhny Novgorod State Medical Academy and that two institutions instead have shared an agreement and alleged that based on the agreement students will be transferred to Russia through a student exchange programme. He said that the parents have not received receipts for the payments made to the institution.“We tried contacting the Russian university over the phone, by email and every other way possible but that have not been reachable,” he said and added that the Education Ministry, Higher Education Ministry, Justice Ministry, Defence Ministry and Finance Ministry should investigate the matter. (By Olindhi Jayasundere)