The Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) is on the warpath against the Provincial Health Directors, Deputy Provincial Health Directors and the Health Ministry bureaucracy as many doctors serving in North-Central, Eastern and Southern provinces have not been paid their on-call availability allowances.

The GMOA accuses that although the hospitals are managed by the respective provincial councils the doctors’ plea for allowance entitlement has fallen on deaf ears. The GMOA has decided to meet Health Ministry Secretary Dr. Athula Kahadaliyanage and subsequently President Mahinda Rajapaksa to resolve the problem, unless the Health authorities take action to solve it, the GMOA said.

GMOA Colombo National Hospital Branch Secretary Dr. Upul Gunasakara told The Island that the Health Ministry had tried to absolve itself of the responsibility by claiming that it was up to the provincial governors to settle the dispute over the non-payment of the on-call availability allowance to doctors serving in hospitals managed by the provincial councils. The doctors serving in the hospitals under the line ministry had been paid the allowance and the responsibility for sorting out the problem lay with the Healthcare Minister, Secretary to the Health Ministry and all Provincial Health Directors, he said.