GMOA strike inconveniences thousands of patients

Thousands of patients who sought treatment at government hospitals in the Moneragala district were in a predicament due to the trade union action of the doctors affiliated with the Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA).

The doctors in the Moneragala General Hospital, Wellawaya, Bibila, and Siyambalanduwa Base Hospitals, Kataragama, Sevanagala, Hambegamuwa, Thanamalwila, Butthala, Okkampitiya, Handapanagala, Inginiyagala, Ethimale, Pitakumbura District Hospitals, and the central dispensaries in the district had joined the token strike of doctors in the Uva Province. 

Secretary of the Moneragala District branch of the GMOA Dr. S.H.M.P. Kumara said they resorted to trade union action on a decision by the GMOA to protest against several issues including the shortage of drugs and medical equipment that have been ignored by the government regardless of continued representations. 

A senior official of the Moneragala District Deputy Director of Health Services' office said the patients who called over at the clinics and the OPD were the worst affected. He said arrangements had been made to provide treatments uninterrupted to the in-house patients in all hospitals. (Sumnaisir Gunatileka)