{"id":50143,"date":"2015-12-11T13:19:19","date_gmt":"2015-12-11T20:19:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=50143"},"modified":"2015-12-11T13:19:19","modified_gmt":"2015-12-11T20:19:19","slug":"private-medical-education-in-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2015\/12\/11\/private-medical-education-in-sri-lanka\/","title":{"rendered":"Private medical education in Sri Lanka"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr. Upasiri de Silva\u00a0Sydney\u00a0Courtesy Island<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

Sri Lanka Medical Council has failed to Act in accordance with the Commission they received under the Chapter 105 of the Medical Ordinance.<\/p>\n

After reading a notice published by the Sri Lanka Medical Council, in a newspaper on Nov. 8, 2015, I thought of writing this letter to the Editor, as I have some knowledge about this tug of war between SAITM and the SLMC since 2006.<\/p>\n

In September 2015, after their inspection or fact finding mission SLMC wrote to the Minister of Health not to recognize SAITM degree, thinking they are the authority to approve Medical Degrees. But the statement of the SLMC is not meeting the Commission granted to them by the Act of Parliament-Chapter 105.\u00a0Chapter 105 direct the SLMC in section 2 of that Commission issued to them – “According to the Medical Ordinance, the Sri Lanka Medical Council has powers to maintain the\u00a0standard\u00a0of Medical Education including standards relating to courses of study, examinations, staff, equipment,\u00a0accommodation, training and other facilities of the Universities and other Institutions which grant or confer any qualification\u00a0which entitles a person to obtain registration under the Medical Ordinance [Section 19(e)].<\/p>\n

In simple words this Commission granted by the Act of Parliament is to ‘accredit’ the Medical Institutions engaged in Medical Education by checking their course of studies, clinical practices etc.etc. and if it meets the above\u00a0requirements in accordance with the Chapter 105 of the Medical Ordinance, to grant\u00a0accreditation\u00a0to such Institutions, but not to request the Minister or any other\u00a0Authority like the\u00a0University Grant Commission (UGC) not to\u00a0recognize\u00a0the Medical Degree offered by such Institutions or SAITM. If the SLMC understood the meaning of the words “POWERS TO MAINTAIN” means that they should examine and direct the SAITM to direct their medical education meeting the Medical\u00a0Ordinance and if they are not meeting the above\u00a0requirements, then the SLMA should take up this matter with the Minister of Higher Education and the UGC in a very confidential manner. Due to SLMA failure to understand what their\u00a0responsibilities\u00a0are now trying to stop the accreditation\u00a0of the degree offered by this institution, where students are enrolled under UGC\u00a0supervision\u00a0meeting UGC guidelines,\u00a0without guiding the SAITM and the others involved in providing medical education to citizens of Sri Lanka by correcting their teaching methods.<\/p>\n

As Sri Lankan medical education has, for the last 100 years,\u00a0maintained\u00a0very high\u00a0standards, it is the duty of the SLMC to direct the SAITM to achieve the best\u00a0standards\u00a0in the field. But SLMC has failed in its duty to check the SAITM institute for the last 6 to 7 years and now like in a trance they go and do an inspection and issue a report to the Public and to the SAITM management about the shortcomings.<\/p>\n

In this regard I like to mention about a media reports that out of 7,000 students who completed their medical studies in foreign countries and sat for the local qualifying examination, only 17 students completed the SLMC examination to get their registration in Sri Lanka. How many times the SLMA has gone to these countries where Sri\u00a0Lankan\u00a0students study medicine to check the\u00a0standard\u00a0and the quality of education they receive, when they spend the hard earn money of the Sri\u00a0Lankan\u00a0parents.<\/p>\n

SLMC consist of qualified medical professionals and they are aware that medical ethic does not allow them to make known their findings to the public, but in this instance they did a mistake by doing so. The enrollments and selection of students for the medical degree at SAITM is recognized\u00a0by the UGC. I am aware about this as I was present in 2006, when the then UGC Chairman, Prof Gamini Samaranayake met some\u00a0university\u00a0medical students protesting against the\u00a0recognition\u00a0of SAITM by the UGC, dash into the\u00a0Chairman’s room. There were nearly 150 students protesting about the FREE EDUCATION getting eroded outside the UGC gates blocking the road, and the only alternative was to meet\u00a0these\u00a0student\u00a0protesters\u00a0Prof. Gamini invited them to meet him. Students\u2019 main objection was about FREE EDUCATION GETTING VIOLATED by allowing this Private Medical College.<\/p>\n

Prof. Samaranayake\u00a0listened\u00a0to their\u00a0grievances\u00a0and asked three questions.<\/p>\n

Q. Do you pay money for your education or you enjoy the FREE EDUCATION provided by the government with\u00a0university\u00a0bursaries.<\/p>\n

A. Yes, we are using the facilities provided FREE to us by the UNIVERSITIES.<\/p>\n

Q. How many of you will treat sick\u00a0patients\u00a0, once you get your FREE Education FREE.<\/p>\n

(Half the students left the hall without\u00a0giving\u00a0a answer YES or NO)<\/p>\n

Q. When you complete your fellowship and get\u00a0qualified\u00a0will you treat sick patients FREE?<\/p>\n

(NO answer, all the students left the hall without waiting for Prof. Samaranayake to tell them what he is going to do with the SAITM recognition.)<\/p>\n

Most members in the SLMC completed their fellowship in Australia or the UK as Sri Lanka was still not able to\u00a0professionally\u00a0test them due to some\u00a0inadequacies. A few years back the Australian government offered scholarships to students who completed the HSC to study medicine in Australia. Approximately nine students got\u00a0qualified\u00a0to receive that scholarship grant and FOUR students completed their medicine degree at the Sydney\u00a0University, and completed the first, second, third, fourth and the\u00a0fifth years in the top order. Three students topped the list in the final examination\u00a0and\u00a0were awarded the gold and other medals. The\u00a0scholarship\u00a0arrangement was that the students should go back to their own\u00a0countries\u00a0to do their\u00a0internship\u00a0and then get qualified to work\u00a0in\u00a0that\u00a0country. Eight students came back to Sri Lanka and the SLMC refused to allow them to work as interns and most of them left for the UK and some came back to Australia. Out of the students who left Sri\u00a0Lanka\u00a0and\u00a0settled down\u00a0in UK and Australia, are now working as qualified\u00a0surgeons\u00a0and\u00a0specialist\u00a0in other fields. Due to SLMC failure to\u00a0recognise\u00a0the\u00a0degrees awarded by the Australian medical colleges, the Australian Government cancelled the scholarship scheme, and Sri Lankan students lost a golden\u00a0opportunity\u00a0to receive medical education at no cost.<\/p>\n

In my professional opinion, what the SLMC should do is to prepare a list of the shortcomings they\u00a0detected\u00a0at SAITM and appoint capable and\u00a0experienced\u00a0medical professionals to\u00a0tackle\u00a0each and every\u00a0section\u00a0coming under the Medical\u00a0Ordinance\u00a0and direct the UGC and the Minister of Higher\u00a0Education\u00a0to request the SAITM management to\u00a0rectify\u00a0these shortcomings and\u00a0recommend\u00a0to\u00a0the\u00a0Minister of Health to allow these students to participate in clinical and other essential areas to learn their trade in either Colombo South Hospital or at Ragama or any other\u00a0hospital, so the students who now follow this medical degree are not left between two worlds.<\/p>\n

Sri Lankan parent’s main intention is for their children to become doctors, and if the Medical Colleges affiliated to the present\u00a0Universities\u00a0are unable to provide the facilities for the students, let the\u00a0government formulate a Education system to open private Medical, Engineering and other\u00a0Universities, to save the\u00a0deflated\u00a0foreign\u00a0currency reserve in Sri Lanka, as the proper medical Education in the Western countries will cost around US $ 225,000 to US $ 300,000.<\/p>\n

My professional opinion is that the government should look into the mushrooming of foreign technical institutions and other education providers as a\u00a0matter\u00a0of urgency as the\u00a0country should clear this hurdle of providing a good education to the young generation.<\/p>\n

Dr. Upasiri de Silva<\/p>\n

Sydney<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr. Upasiri de Silva\u00a0Sydney\u00a0Courtesy Island Sri Lanka Medical Council has failed to Act in accordance with the Commission they received under the Chapter 105 of the Medical Ordinance. After reading a notice published by the Sri Lanka Medical Council, in a newspaper on Nov. 8, 2015, I thought of writing this letter to the Editor, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50143\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}