PMC only intent on making money – GMOA

September 12, 2011, 12:00 pm
The Island

by Dasun Edirisinghe

The Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) yesterday claimed that the Private Medical College (PMC) at Malabe enrolled students every six months, not to contribute to medical education in the country, but to rake in more and more money.

GMOA Assistant Secretary Dr. Sankalpa Marasinghe said that the country has eight State medical faculties, but none of them enrolled students every six months.

"Normally, students sit the GCE (A/L) examination only once a year," he said querying how the PMC enrolled two batches in one year.

Dr. Marasinghe said that Malabe PMC did not deposit any payment with the government, but even in India, a private medical college deposits Indian rupees 2-3 billion. Otherwise, the government would not be responsible for the institution. But here, the government gifted the PMC Rs. 500 million of public money, he said.

The GMOA also accused some media personnel of being entertained by the Malabe PMC through its Rs. 20 million PR budget to write in its favour.

The Malabe PMC was to operate under the Company Act and it was registered as a investment company owned by Dr. Neville Fernando, he said adding that according to the Act, a person who was over 70 years of age could not hold the ownership of a company and it should have a board to manage it.

"A 1,000-bed hospital is a must to start a medical college, but Malabe PMC is repeatedly cheating students and their parents by only showing a hospital plan without even starting any construction," the GMOA Assistant Secretary said.

He said that Malabe PMC attempted to show parents that they had an academic agreement with a Russian university, but it was totally false.

The medical college clearly would produce only half – baked doctors.

Dr. Marasinghe said that short-sighted politicians could say anything to justify their poor decisions, but most of private medical colleges even in India were known to give kickbacks, according to the British Medical Journal.

"Several times in India, it has proved that politicians and other officials were bribed by businessmen and approved private medical colleges," he said adding it would be the same in Sri Lanka.

According to an article written by Dr. Mahinda Kommalage and published in The Island newspaper, Dr. Marasinghe said many new private medical colleges were setup in the past decade in India but a study in Maharashtra State found that most private medical colleges do not have adequate infrastructure, academic staff, nonacademic staff or facilities (British Medical Journal 2004;328:70).

He said that often in India they charged fees not commensurate with the cost of facilities provided to students and cost of establishing the colleges or the facilities. Shortage of academic staff was between 50% and 63%. Many staff members were working on a part-time basis on very low salaries as low as 2,000 rupees per month. Shortage of non-academic staff was between 60% and 70%. Reports say that although teaching beds were available, there were no adequate patients for clinical teaching-learning process.

"Sri Lanka would have to face the same situation if the government allows private medical colleges here," Dr. Marasinghe said.