As the country celebrated the capture of the last major LTTE bastion on the western flank of the Vanni battlefield on Saturday, frontline troops wounded in skirmishes with the LTTE had to be transferred to the National Hospital and Kandy Teaching Hospital for want of medical specialists at the Anuradhapura Teaching Hospital.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa intervened after the situation was brought to his notice.

President directed Health Ministry to rush medical specialists, after the army complained about the absence of prompt medical attention.

Sources said that a surgeon attached to the National Hospital Accident Ward had to be rushed overland to Anuradhapura.

The Health Ministry has ordered an inquiry to ascertain whether there had been any derilection of duty on the part of the surgeons at the Anuradhapura hospital.

Sources said that the wounded soldiers had been moved overland to the National Hospital and Kandy Teaching Hospital.