‘Twisting facts’: SB warns GMOA

December 6, 2011, 12:00 pm , The Island.


By Don Asoka Wijewardena

Higher Education Minister S. B. Dissanayaka yesterday warned the Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) against distorting facts about the recommendations made by two committees that looked into the degree awarding status of the Malabe private medical college. The committees which included officials of the University Grants Commission and Sri Lanka Medical Council had recommended that all basic training facilities be made available for medical students. When the PMC had all the required facilities and the recommendations SLMC were fulfilled, it was legal to recognise it as a degree awarding college, he said.

On the contrary, GMOA General Secretary Dr. Chandika Epitakaduwa yesterday said the two Committees appointed by Minister S. B Disanayaka had not recommended degree awarding status to the Malabe Private Medical College as it had not followed the proper procedure to admit students and because there were lapses as regards clinical training, tutorial staff etc.

Minister Dissanayaka said that the government had, on the recommendations of the two Committees, asked the Malabe PMC to provide adequate lecturers, facilities for clinical training and admit those with the required educational qualifications. He said he was confident that the medical school would be able to meet such criteria. It would be a fully-fledged private medical college and a boon to the country.

Dr. Epitakaduwa, addressing the media, said that the degree awarding status of the Malabe medical school had been gazetted in the midst of several problems faced by the school. The medical students had no place to do clinical work and they were without sufficient lecturers and some students were not qualified to study medicine.

He said that the GMOA with consensus of all professional associations had taken a unanimous decision to meet President Mahinda Rajapaksa and request him to intervene to resolve a plethora of problems faced by the medical sector. The GMOA would also ask the President not to appoint non-medical or politically affiliated person as the President of the Sri Lanka Medical Council.