by Dilanthi Jayamanne

The Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) said on Thursday that it strongly opposed the move to shift the residential counselling centre for abused children from District Hospital Kandana to Rheumatological and Rehabilitation Hospital Ragama.

In a letter to the Minister of Health, Nutrition and Welfare, P. Dayaratne the GMOA Secretary Dr. Anuruddha Padeniya claimed that the care available for the physically disabled in Sri Lanka needed to be vastly improved and that the Ministry of Health had already renovated and handed over a building at the District Hospital Kandana to the National Child Protection Authority (NCPA) for this purpose.

"We have been informed that the Minister of Rehabilitation, Resettlement and Refugees (MRRR), Dr. Jayalath Jayawardane has personally intervened in this project and is trying to shift the centre to the Rheumatology and Rehabilitation Hospital Ragama (RRH). The RRH is the only care centre for medical rehabilitation of the physically disabled in Sri Lanka", Padeniya pointed out.

"You will agree with us that the care available at the RRH Hospital for the physically disabled needs to be improved," he said. "In this process the hospital will be the national centre and therefore it needs to be expanded and the services provided need to be developed."

Padeniya pointed out that many of the hospital’s development projects have had to be put on hold due to the lack of funds. "The use of buildings or land at the RRH to set up projects outside the preview of medical rehabilitation would hinder the smooth functioning of this hospital as well as its future development", the Secretary pointed out.

Already parts of the remaining 20 acres of land belonging to this hospital have been given for a school, a church and an army rehabilitation centre, a spokesman for the RRH Ragama said.

The spokesman said that the hospital staff hoped to make representations to Minister Dayaratne in order to prevent any part of the RRH being forcibly taken for a Children’s Rehabilitation Centre (CRC).

"The two rehabilitations are totally different and the medical attention required is also different," he claimed.

Pointing out the disadvantages the RRH spokesman said that the hospital had 230 beds and 50 of them would be required for the CRC.

"None of the special resources and expertise available at the RRH have any relevance to the proposed centre," the GMOA said.

All unions at the hospital have come together to campaign against the setting up of a CRC at the RRH as they feel that the hospital cannot take any more of outside interference, "especially from politicians who are seeking popularity," outside sources claimed.

"If the Minister of RRR does not back off, then the GMOA and all other unions involved in the issue will have to resort to stronger action than this," a spokesperson for all unions added.

The Counselling Centre is to be set up by the NCPA in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) which has donated US $85,000 for the project.

In June the Chairman of the NCPA, Prof. Harendra de Silva said that they had already spent Rs. 500,000 to renovate a building at the Kandana District Hospital. But the project was suddenly brought to a halt when Minister Jayawardane interfered saying that he had other plans for the hospital.

The NCPA Chief said that the current situation of the CRC should be found out from the Minister of Health and the Minister of Rehabilitation.

The Health Minister and the Minister RRR were not available for comment as they were in Parliament. But according to informed sources the Minister of RRR had levelled false allegations against the doctors and other staff members of the RRH.

A spokesman for the RRH committee said that they had been given a date by the Minister of Health to make their representations as the Minister had been in a hurry to leave for parliament at the time.

"It is indeed sad that they are willing to shift the CRC from Kandana to Ragama because of political interference and that they are unwilling to listen to the professionals concerned in the issue," RRH sources said.