Responding to the recent statement made by the Government Medical Officers' Association (GMOA) in connection with publishing newspaper advertisements on behalf of SAITM, Health Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne stated that there is nothing wrong in communicating state policies to the public and educating them through publishing advertisements.
According to Minister Senaratne, the GMOA did not say anything when the previous regime did the same and published newspaper advertisements using public funds. During that time many such advertisements published on birthdays, on openings etc. but nothing was said.
Meanwhile, the GMOA held a press conference at the GMOA Head Quarters in Colombo and made a request from the relevant government authorities to bring a final and real solution to the SAITM issue through the set of proposals presented to the Government over a month ago by the GMOA, the Deans of all State Medical Faculties of Sri Lanka and the Faculty of Medicine Teachers' Associations (FMTAs).
The GMOA also pointed out that the Health Minister and the Higher Education Minister have brought another set of proposals with the intention of protecting a fraudulent company owned by an individual making the existing issue more complicated. Those were not the Government's proposals. The two Ministers purposely misled the judiciary by not presenting actual and true facts, the GMOA said.