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| Sunday, 21 March 2004 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Doctors strike : Baby delivered at hospital doorstep by Shanika Sriyananda A pregnant woman delivered her baby not in the labour room but inside a vehicle, near the gate of the Kalubowila hospital, the state-run-hospital, where the striking doctors first stopped admission, to win their demands - 'a fat salary'.
These were the notable unfortunate incidents that happened during the strike launched by the doctors, members of the Government Medical Officers' Association (GMOA). The strike was claimed to be the first trade union action in the health sector where the administrative staff, including hospital Directors and Deputy Directors supported the strike by not attending to their routine work. However, after causing much inconvenience to the poor patients, the 10-day-old battle between the doctors and the Ministers - of Health and Finance, - came to an end with the appointment of a committee to look into the salary anomalies, not only in the health sector but also the entire public service and an assurance of abolition of the circular 01-02/2004 on recommendation of the committee. All the admissions in three teaching hospitals - Kalubowila, Ragama and Kurunegala had been stopped due to the strike while the routine work of hospitals islandwide were crippled. The patients who came to the three teaching hospitals were transferred to the CNH and Kandy hospitals. "No emergency case was put aside", said Dr. Channa Perera, GMOA's Media Spokesman. According to reports from the hospitals islandwide, the emergency cases had been attended by the doctors on strike but the routine work was crippled. The attempts on last Friday to get through to the D.M.Os peripheral hospitals failed as they were also on strike. The Deputy Director of the Jaffna Teaching Hospital could not be contacted as he was busy with an urgent surgery. According to hospital sources, the routine work had been crippled due to the strike. They, however, denied that the LTTE ordered them to suspend the trade union action and said that they followed the GMOA's instructions. However, the GMOA did not extend the strike to the Lady Ridgeway Children's Hospital, two Maternity Hospitals and the Cancer Hospital, Maharagama. According to Dr. Perera, they were waiting hopefully for a positive reply from the newly appointed Committee. " All doctors including hospital Directors and Deputy Directors reported for duty and the state sector health services have come back to normalcy", he said. " The Finance Minister K.N. Choksy agreed to hold an inquiry to find out the Ministry officials who were responsible for issuing two adhoc circulars, which created problems not only among the health workers but also in the entire public service", he said. The five member committee, comprises of senior public servants - K.C. Logeswaran, N.H. Pathirana, G. Sathkunanathan. A.M. Beligaswatta and W.R. Piyasena. The committee, which will commence its sittings on March 26. Dr. Perera refuting allegations that the GMOAs is a cat's paw of the Janatha Vimukthi Preramuna (JVP) said that 'they are a professional organisation'. " The GMOA is not a party supporter of any of the political party and we fight only for our professional rights", he said. He blamed the politicians for trying to gain their own advantages. " A big problem has been created by this circular and we fight to correct that and not for the benefit of any political party", he said. Meanwhile, a JVP press release issued yesterday said the UNP was spawning false and malicious propaganda. " Instead of taking steps to solve the problems in the public sector, the UNP had implemented a policy of aggravating these problems. This resulted in frequent trade union actions", it stated. President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga is expected to meet GMOA Executive members, tomorrow, to look into their grievances. She has also directed the Health Minister P. Dayaratne to submit a full report. In her directive to the Health Minister the President had him asked to focus on three issues: reasons that have led the doctors to resort to strike action, the action taken by the Health Ministry to resolve the problems and the suggestions to prevent strikes in the health sector. Dr. Perera said that the GMOA was very thankful to the President for her intervention and said the it firmly believed that she would solve their grievances. According to Health Ministry sources, the Finance Minister had instructed the Committee to hold a disciplinary inquiry against the Health Ministry Secretary and the two additional secretaries who had issued the two circulars. The sources added that these three responsible authorities issued these circulars without proper consultations with the Treasury. |
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| Editorial | Security Produced by Lake House |
Two patients, one a man and the other, 60-year-old woman with severe
injuries, who were refused admission to the same hospital and transferred
to the Colombo National Hospital (CNH) died before admission. The gates of
three teaching hospitals closed to poor patients, who could not afford
expensive private health-care. Over 24,000 scheduled operations were
cancelled islandwide due to the trade union action by the government
doctors.
