Professor Colvin Gunaratne who resigned from his post as Chairman of Sri Lanka Medical Council on last Friday, issued a damning indictment on the Sri Lanka Medical Council virtually pointing to the capture of the professional governing body by the Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA).
There were 25 members in the SLMC and out of them 16 members represented the Government Medical Officers’ Association, Prof. Gunaratne said.
Addressing a media conference, Professor Gunaratne said he was resigning because he had found it impossible to function independently.
Since assuming office as Chairman of the SLMC in October 2017, he had been trying without success to rectify errors in the Medical Council Service Minute in the last nine months, Prof. Gunaratne claimed. The Minute needed to change to adapt to needs of modern times, he added, explaining that according to the existing Minute, the voice of patients in matters coming up before the Sri Lanka Medical Council were not represented.
“The purpose of this act is the welfare of the general public of Sri Lanka. This main purpose of the act is not achieved because of the shortcomings of the act. And my resignation is not a sudden decision. I have been observing the conduct of SLMC for five years. Sri Lanka Medical Council receives grievances of patients and can act as a court of inquiry. But two thirds of members of the SLMC are doctors. They are the prosecutors, They are also the judges. They determine the sentence. Tell me if that is reasonable?” Prof. Gunaratne charged.
There were at least three complaints per month against doctors, but none of them have been found guilty by the SLMC in the last five and a half years, the outgoing chairman of the SLMC revealed.
“If someone asks me about a strike launched by medical officers I’d say it’s illegal and a breach of ethics,” he clarified his stance on the GMOA strike answering a question raised by a journalist during the press conference.