GMOA threatens to strike again

Tuesday, 27 June 2017 00:14 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By Shanika Sriyananda

Urging the Government to keep the promises made by President Maithripala Sirisena over the South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine (SAITM) issue, the Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) yesterday once again threatened to resort to islandwide trade union action if the Government fails to adhere to the agreement that the GMOA reached with President Sirisena.

The Executive Committee of the GMOA, which met in Colombo yesterday, had decided to give the Government till 29 June to issue a statement with no changes to the agreement that the GMOA had reached with the President.

The GMOA claimed that the statement issued by the President’s Secretary P.B. Abeykoon contradicts the agreement that they reached with the President.

“The President gave us an assurance and asked us to believe him. We respected his word and called off the strike. But the statement issued by the Secretariat has disregarded the agreement due to someone’s influence,” GMOA’s Exco-member Dr. Nalinda Herath said.

However, after President Sirisena’s meeting with the GMOA, the statement issued by the Presidential Secretariat has stated that SAITM was instructed to stop enrolling new students until the Government issued a gazette notice stipulating the standards to be adopted by the private medical education.

The special gazette notification signed by the President’s Secretary Abeykoon contains a suspension of new admissions and the issuing of degrees until SAITM met all conditions, gazetting minimum standards in respect to medical education, the Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC) to be free of interference, the curriculum of SAITM students to be in line with SLMC standards and to work out a system for those who had received a degree from SAITM to receive SLMC registration.

Dr. Herath said that the Ex- Co had discussed the statement and observed several contradictory remarks in it and the GMOA expects to have further discussions with the President to change those clauses before Thursday.

“Over 110 members of the GMOA representing each branch will come to Colombo next Thursday to decide on the next trade union action,” Dr. Herath told the Daily FT.

It was said that the Government would convert SAITM into a public-private partnership while taking over the SAITM hospital. But the GMOA and the students union demanded SAITM be abolished or nationalised.

“If the Government fails to correct the changes in the statement before Thursday, we will definitely launch an islandwide strike,” Dr. Herath said.

GMOA President Dr. Anurudda Padeniya and Ex-Co members had visited the Convenor of the Inter University Student’s Federation Lahiru Weerasekara at the Welikada remand prison yesterday.