GMOA vows to take legal action

27 September 2011 08:37 pm

The Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) Central Working Committee which met recently has unanimously decided to take legal action if the Higher Education Ministry did not oblige to the demands of the union to shut down the private medical university in Malabe.

GMOA Spokesman Dr. Upul Gunasekara said the union would send a letter of demand to Higher Education Minister S.B Dissanayake this week and may choose to take legal action depending on the response.

“We have received an approval to go ahead with the legal process. But we will wait for a response from the ministry,” Dr. Gunasekara said.

He said the union had decided on two courses of action. If the ministry chooses to dissolve the Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC), the GMOA will resort to islandwide trade union action without prior notice. “According to the Medical Ordinance doctors cannot practice without having registered with the SLMC. Therefore our licence to practise medicine will be annulled automatically if the SLMC is dissolved,” he said.

He also said if the Health Ministry permitted the South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine (SAITM) to use any hospital in the country as proposed recently, the GMOA would go on an all island protest. “Hospitals are run on people’s taxes. We cannot allow a private institution of this nature to use public resources,” he said. (By Olindhi Jayasundere)