Health Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva urged newly appointed doctors not to be afraid of serving in the North and East. "Nor should you feel that you have been relegated to these areas as you have not made it to the top ranks of the merit list," he said.

However, a spokesman for the Government Medical Officer’s Association thought otherwise. General Committee Member of the Government Medical Officers Association, Dr. Chandika Epitakaduwa said yesterday (13) that the Minister

had advised doctors to go to the North and East like true soldiers. Following the killing of a doctor working in the periphery of Batticaloa last month, all doctors from the South serving in Batticaloa and several other areas of the North returned to Colombo.

"But Minister de Silva advised them to "return to their stations like soldiers and carry on with their duties," he said. "Therefore it is not surprising that the Minister made this statement to new appointees.

At present, only doctors from the area serve in peripheral hospitals of the North – especially in the Batticaloa district. Despite being provided with accommodation and security by the Ministry of Defence, the Southerners are still reluctant to leave the sanctuary of the General Hospitals they work for.

But there are doctors from the South who have volunteered to work in the Valachchenai hospital.