The medical professions is said to be considered as one of the noblest profession in this society. We have much respect and regard for medical doctors for they are considered as persons who are ready to cure ill people and relieve them from sicknesses. Is this notion always true by them?

I admitted my father who complained of a chest pain, at the General Hospital, Colombo, on 14th November at about 9.30 a.m. First he was seen by a doctor at the OPD and then was admitted to ward 50. We showed him the diagnosis card of the patient consulted by a Cardiologist (Dr. Shantharaja), continuously at a private hospital.

Although my father was a heart patient he was admitted to ward 50 of the General Hospital, which is not a ward treating heart patients. As the condition of my father was critical we appealed with the doctors in the said ward to transfer my father either to Intensive Care Unit or at least to the Cardiology Unit. But they refused that it cannot be done as priority should be given to young patients.

When they were refusing to transfer him to the Cardiology Unit, one of the doctors who was on duty in that ward told us that if the patient was to be transferred to the Cardiology Unit, that he should have been privately consulted by a Cardiologist working in the Cardiology unit of the General Hospital. As the aforesaid cardiologist was not attached to the General Hospital they refused to transfer the patient to that ward.

When my father was groaning due to the severe pain he was enduring at that time, one of the female doctors who was on duty in that ward came to me and yelled "tell your father to stop groaning".

The only medicine that my father was given until he died at 8.45 p.m. in the night of that day was only Saline and oxygen.

Is this the kind of medical service available in this country for heart patients? Is this the medical service available for patients who cannot afford to undergo treatment in private hospitals? What is the difference between the brutal killing occurring in the North and the East and the type of inhuman treatment in government hospitals in Sri Lanka?

Well done doctors! Can you equate a human life to a dog’s life, whether he is young or old, rich or poor?

Isn’t there an Authority to look into this kind of inhuman, barbarian act; and unfairness endured by poor patients and take disciplinary action?
Nalin Dharmasena