The Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) is seeking President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s intervention to bring the medical services administration in the North under the purview of the Essential Services Commissioner General. It warned it would completely withdraw the services of doctors posted to hospitals in the North if this is not done.

GMOA General Secretary Dr. Anuruddha Padeniya told The Island that around 250 medical residents, interns and post-interns serving in the North were being meted step-motherly treatment by the Health Ministry.

The GMOA would write an official letter to President Rajapaksa to resolve the anti-doctors attitude of the Health Ministry.

He said doctors serving in the North were entitled to a return air ticket to Colombo once in three months. However, the Health Ministry had not provided air tickets to many doctors serving in the North to visit their homes, this time during the Sinhala and Tamil New Year and this has compelled many doctors to purchase their own return tickets which cost them Rs 17,000.

Dr. Padeniya said that the Secretary to the Health Ministry had told the media that to become eligible for free air tickets they have to serve continuously for a period of three months. While the GMOA was aware of this condition he cannot understand why doctors who had served for more than six months have been denied this facility.

He said, the armed forces personnel irrespective of their rank, are entitled to a return air ticket to Colombo once in every six weeks but doctors have been meted step-motherly treatment. The GMOA had already taken the painful decision to withdraw the services of all doctors serving in the North unless, through a presidential intervention, the administration of health services in the North was officially handed over to function under the Essential Services Commissioner General.

Dr. Padeniya asserted that the GMOA cannot be made to dance according to the whims and fancies of the bungling Health Ministry bureaucracy. The initial step would be to bring this crisis to the notice of President Rajapaksa and expect him to resolve it. The GMOA was confident that the President would take appropriate action.