Last Tuesday, November 3, was a historic day for Sri Lankan people. This is because now they can lie on an operating theatre table to undergo surgery with confidence and without fearing for their lives. The credit should directly go to the current Government headed by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and current Health Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi for saving the entire Sri Lankan population from ‘doctors’ who were due to arrive in white coats wearing stethoscopes.
Two regulations under the Medical Ordinance were passed in Parliament last Tuesday (3). One of the resolutions included that to become a registered MBBS doctor under the Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC), the basic qualification should be two credit passes (two Cs) and one ordinary pass (one S) obtained at the G.C.E. Advanced Level Examination, Biology stream. This historic decision has been made after a 19-year-struggle of patriotic people of this country who were chased away using expired teargas by the previous Yahapalana Government.
Since 2006, the GMOA and all the other organizations such as Parents’ Union of State Medical Students and Medical Students’ Union demanded at least two B passes (two Bs) and one credit pass (one C) as the minimum standard for medical education. But now the basic ‘security checkpoint’ and the ‘gate’ which is required to stop unqualified individuals becoming medical doctors had been erected. This new Amendment can be further strengthened in the next few years.
He says now the racketeers will not be able to snatch money from the rich Sri Lankan parents and create conflicts between Sri Lanka and other countries using medical education. It was racketeers who were behind blocking this essential Amendment during the past one-and-a-half decades because they were earning billions by sending unqualified Sri Lankan students to foreign universities. The other evil force was the wealth of some people. During the past one-and-a-half decades its arms were everywhere especially in politics, in business, in law, in state universities, in the Health Ministry, in the Education and Higher Education Ministry, in the Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC), in the BOI, and almost every field in Sri Lanka.
Alwis points out that as a result of the activities of these racketeers who sent a large number of unqualified Sri Lankan medical students (who have three ‘F’s and who even do not have at least O/L qualifications) abroad for money, around 600 unqualified ‘MBBS doctors’ are now in Sri Lanka and another 300 or more are to be added to this number soon due to the process that took place under Yahapalana regime from 2015 to 2019, before the new Amendment was passed in Parliament last week.
Alwis states that legalizing the minimum standard for medical education will prevent students becoming MBBS doctors using money and private medical faculties. The new Amendment will also make powerless certain gangs which were working hard to destabilize the Government through racketeers. Some racketeers were able to put pressure on the Sri Lankan Government through foreign countries before the Amendment was passed on November 3.
A well-qualified MBBS doctor (surgeon) can operate on the abdomen of any patient successfully and cure him or her and he can cut meat at any time to cook. A butcher can cut meat at any time to cook but he cannot operate on the abdomen of a patient. When we are unconscious and lie down on an operating theatre table, our lives should be in the hands of that qualified and talented doctor.
He stresses that there should be a separate unit at the University Grants Commission (UGC) to send qualified Sri Lankan students to foreign universities, especially for medicine.
Any Sri Lankan who has an iota of intelligence can understand that it is the poor bright students who do not have money and do not have one or few marks to meet the cut-off mark to enter into medical faculties who should get private or whatever medical education and it is not the children of millionaires who should get it. But as we all know, innocent poor parents of brainy and talented medical students do not have money because they do not engage in illicit businesses or are involved in corruption while carrying out official duties in top positions in the public service, semi-government institutions, private institutions and so on.
Meanwhile the Government Medical Officers' Association (GMOA), officials pointed out that the former Health Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne had been blocking bringing in the minimum standards for medical education since 2006 and at that time he was just an opposition MP. He blocked then Health Minister Nimal Siripala De Silva from bringing in the minimum standards for medical education. Then he blocked another former Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena from doing the same. Then Dr. Rajitha Senaratne became the Health Minister himself in 2015 and hundreds of medical students who did not even sit for the Advanced Level Examination and the students with three ‘F’s (Fail) received registration as MBBS doctors in Sri Lanka.
But the most crucial fact pointed out by the GMOA officials is not any of this. It is related to something grave that still exists within the SLMC. They stated that there are four supporters of Dr. Senaratne in the SLMC and Sri Lankan patients’ lives are still in danger. The GMOA hopes Health Minister Wanniarachchi will end the ‘the darkest Yahapalana era in Health’ and ensure the safety of patients.
Covid-19 proved the lies told by Yahapalana politicians. They said a large number of Sri Lankan students go to foreign medical faculties and a large amount of money from Sri Lanka goes to those countries. But the actual numbers were revealed during Covid-19 when the numbers of Sri Lankan students studying in foreign medical faculties were exposed while bringing them back to Sri Lanka from foreign countries.
What Sri Lankan people say is, anyone who has both brains and money can study and obtain qualifications. But brains should not be replaced with money. If this happens, it is the ordinary Sri Lankan people who cannot afford to seek medical treatment from Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore who will die in the hands of sub-standard doctors employed in state and private hospitals instead of actual qualified and talented surgeons. This is the same for all the other consultants such as physicians, cardiologists, neurologists, pediatricians, urologists, rheumatologists and so on.
A large number of rich individuals with unqualified children were connected to influencers including editors of some newspapers, journalists, certain health trade unionists, some MBBS doctors who hold foreign degrees, some academics, some public servants who held top positions, some top businessmen, some politicians and some unqualified children of those individuals. They worked hard during the past one-and-a-half decades, especially during the past five years, to prevent the Minimum Standard for Medical Education getting passed in Parliament.
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