GMOA alleges Health Ministry does not have data bank

November 11, 2011, 9:51 pm

By Lal Gunesekera

The Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) alleges that the Ministry of Health does not have a data bank, though a request was made by the GMOA way back in 2007.

Assistant Secretary of the GMOA Dr. Upul Gunasekera told The Island that they had requested computerisation of data. For that purpose, 16 doctors specialising in bio-informatics related to Medical services had been released to the ministry for a short period and they were to return to their previous stations after completing that assignment.

He said that those doctors had already produced reports with their proposals, but the Ministry had not acted upon their recommendations as yet. The ministry did not have data entry personnel, and these doctors were released to develop a data bank. The GMOA was ‘not happy’ with the IT Department of the Health Ministry, which did not even possess an official e-mail address.

There was a shortage of doctors, but he could not disclose the exact number due to the lack of a data bank. However, according to various sources there were 16,000 doctors and 1,300 consultants in the country. Although he could not exactly say how many government hospitals there were in the country, 47 hospitals were closed down as the were without the necessary doctors and had not been provided with proper facilities, Dr. Gunasekera said.

He said that hospitals could not achieve their full potential as there was a dearth of personnel not only of doctors but also of nurses, pharmacists etc. Therefore a cadre revision was a pressing need, Dr. Gunasekera said.

The GMOA Assistant Secretary also claimed the 60 doctors had not applied for posts and were seeking foreign employment.