The Government Medial Officers Association (GMOA) vowed to do its utmost to halt Health Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva’s proposal to introduce a Covenant by the World Health Organization (WHO) to formulate a Code of Practices on International Resident Health Personnel.

"We will do everything possible to prevent the Minister from taking steps to introduce legislation to make the covenant effective in Sri Lanka", GMOA’s Convenor, Dr. Upul Gunasekara, told a news conference last Friday.

The GMOA condemns the comments made by the country’s Health Minister urging the international community to expel the Sri Lankan specialist doctors practicing overseas or else pay compensation to the Sri Lankan government, if they want to retain them, he said.

The GMOA will be writing to the President and the WHO condemning the Minister’s comments as baseless and urge them to intervene and take appropriate action, he said.

"The Health Minister has made a statement in London that any country which desires to employ expatriate specialists should pay compensation to the mother country for employing them, as the particular home state had spent public funds to educate them to qualify for that job in the health service. Where Sri Lanka is concerned, the Minister had demanded that countries which employ specialist doctors would have to pay Rs 2.2 million for each of them as compensation for employing them", Dr Gunasekara said.

Dr Chandana Atapattu said the statement made by the Health Minister in London is damaging to the country and no country would want to employ our specialist doctors if such a covenant is introduced by the WHO.

"By making these irresponsible statements in the international fora, our Health Minister has ridiculed the country. If such a covenant is implemented, no country would bother to employ Sri Lankan medical specialists", he said.

The country’s health service has deteriorated to low depths during the last 10 years and Health Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva who has held this portfolio during this period should take the responsibility for this sorry situation, he pointed out.

Dr Atapattu said that the government spends Rs 1.11 million on the education of a doctor. But when doctors take up overseas appointments, they remit a considerable amount of valuable foreign exchange to the country and the money spent on their education has not gone down the drain.

India, one of the countries which depends on a knowledge-based economy where its expatriate professionals contribute immensely to the country’s economy, has wholeheartedly condemned the Minister’s comments. India will not be party to the proposed Covenant, he said.