Medical Mafia

Your well documented stories of Medical Negligence Sunday Observer of March 16 is an insult to our medical profession of which the governing body is the Sri Lanka Medical Council. Its total callous attitude to this growing menace is not surprising; since it is hell bent only of fostering the growth of an oligarchy of specialists, by passing regulations to strenthen the exclusivity of its club of specialists consultants.

As a retired medical man, I am appalled if not horrified that stories of medical negligence is now a daily occurrence, which must be first actively addressed by the SLMC. It is the function of the SLMC to enhance the professional standards within the medical community.

Instead it is only seen to be very clever in passing regulations to promote the interests of our medical specialists and consultants, most of whom have lost sight of the fact that they serve the ailing public and not just fatten their incomes by ganging up against all forces that can make a greater contribution to giving better health care.

I might venture to ask what concrete steps have the SLMC taken the past decade to improve health care, apart from making it a marketable product through their exclusive club of specialists.

On the other hand what has the Ministry of Health done to oversea the work of the SLMC, in order to ensure that it is performing the function for which it was set up. There is no doubt it is the Ministry of Health who has done much for better health care by providing billion of rupees for its upkeep and improvement.

Hence it must ensure that it is getting the best service for the colossal funding it is making towards the service. It is common knowledge that government hospitals, more often than not, do not have the less expensive drug but has the more expensive types which does little service to the ailing public but provides a great service to the drug companies.

The specialists are fully aware of this fact but keep silent and does not venture to advise.

It is time the Health Ministry acts immediately to regulate the activities of the specialists and consultants with a view to providing a much broader based specialist service, without trying to make it the Medical Mafia it is now.

If this is not done immediately, we will slide into further chaos, strengthening this Mafia of specialists, most of whom are multi-millionaires, supported by the obnoxious system.

A retired doctor, Colombo.