Act. will empower ministry to nab quacks - Healthcare Minister
 

Sunday Meeting by Shanika Sriyananda

Decade long delayed laws to regularise the private health care sector has come under heavy criticism of the Government Medical officers' Association, (GMOA) has now threatened an islandwide strike unless the government repeals the Medical Services Regulatory Commission Act.

The Act which was on the Order Paper for the last 11 years came into force this year, giving the Ministry of Health have more powers to take action against the errant private medical practitioners who put the lives of innocent patients in danger.

Minister of Health and Leader of the House Nimal Siripala de Silva in an interview with the 'Sunday Observer' staffer Shanika Sriyananda said that he was not ready to repeal the important Act which gives more teeth to the Private Medical Institutions Regulatory Commission. "I am not against amending the Act to accommodate reasonable provisions to strengthen the Act. But I am not going to repeal", he stressed.

Commenting on the present political situation in the country he said that the government of Mahinda Rajapaksa was willing to work with any party to defeat terrorism, to bring law and order and ensure the prosperity of the country.

Q: The GMOA has claimed that the Commission was set up for political reasons whereas you are saying it was to nab quacks and to make the private health sector more reliable. What is the truth in this?

A: How can I get political gains through this commission. In terms of the Act, the person responsible is the Director General of Health Services.

There won't be any political interference and 95 per cent of the members of the Commission are the members of the GMOA. The alliance is more for the GMOA rather than for me.

The other thing is that Ministers may come and go, but the institution will carry out functions and they have to work within the framework of the law. I have no power to give any direction to the commission. If the commission decide beyond their limits they can go to courts.

Yes, we brought regulations under this act in order to make provisions to register the private medical institutions with the council. That was a legal requirement because under the private medical institution Act those doing private practice or running healthcare services have to register themselves with the commission which has the power to inspect, supervise and lay down various criteria to safeguard the quality of their services. This is a piece of social legislature and is mainly to regulate the sector.

Q: Did the Ministry have any discussion with the (GMOA) before drafting the regulations?

A: Yes, some of the members of the GMOA were fully aware and the issue was known to the GMOA for a very long time. And even the Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC) too discussed the matter at that time and there was no objection from them.

So having passed through the passage of law now they demand that this must be repealed. This is a very pathetic situation because whenever my Ministry is trying to do good for the people of this country there are objections and it is very frustrating. They do not highlight the advantages that go to the people when these regulations are implemented.

In other countries, which have private medical institutions the control is being given to a regulatory body to ensure a better private healthcare sector. Then only there will be some control and surveillance and it is very important to introduce such a system to Sri Lanka. They think that gives arbitrary power to the Minister, which is not correct.

Q: Is the commission empowered to nab over 25,000 quacks practising western medicine?

A: It is just an allegation that this will not help to catch the quacks. What I want to reiterate is that to bring these quacks before the law, it is necessary to implement this legislation because there will be a regulation that everybody who practises as a western doctor must display his or her registration number, qualifications etc. Then the authoritative officer can go and check whether the criteria is met or not.

The Ministry can publicise the names of those who are registered with the council and say that these are the doctors who are entitled to do private practice. About 90 per cent of the private sector functions can be regulated under new laws. The grievance of the GMOA is that some ayurvedic and homoepathy doctors are using western medicine. I agree that this is a problem throughout. The Ministry of Indigenous Medicine can bring legislation or we can discuss with the Attorney General (AG) or the Legal Draftsman (LD) whether we can bring some amendments to the Act.

Q: Are you saying that there is a provision to further amend the Act. And are you ready to repeal the Act?

A: No. I am not for repealing the Act. Our Constitution has been amended about 17 times. Similarly any legal document could be amended in order to meet the needs of the society. I am not against amending to accommodate reasonable provisions to strengthening the Act. I have always maintained that if there are some fruitful suggestions I am ready to examine them with the AG and LD to see whether they are within the framework of the law. So this could be implemented if the Cabinet of Ministers or the Consultative Committees or the majority of the members of Parliament approve. I can do it. But I can not do it arbitrarily. I am only a passage to ensure that these things are submitted to parliament.

Q: However, the doctors have threatened to withdraw their services to the state and private sectors unless the government abolish the Commission before July 11. Are you ready to face the challenge?

A: I have not been officially informed about such a trade union action. I do not think that they will be so foolish to resort to a strike when the Ministry is trying to safeguard the people of this country. On the other hand the public are with us. If they want to take some irrational decisions without discussing with me it is upto them, because the doctors, job can not be done by any other.

This is the law of the land. Nobody is above the law. This is like a criminal saying that he is going to murder you and asking you try to do something else and he will do something very disastrous. It is absurd for a professional organisation to say so. But if they can come up with some good suggestions to strengthen the sector and if there are defects in the law we are prepared to rectify. They cannot demand that the laws should be repealed.

I cannot tell anything now because the GMOA has not informed us yet. So let's wait and see. The threats of strikes and trade union actions are always in the health sector. We have faced so many.

Q: Can the Ministry give a guarantee that the irregularities in the private sector health institutions can be minimised under the new regulations?

A: Yes, every institution has to disclose the nature of the staff and their qualifications. The authorised officers have the right to enter their premises after giving notice. In the case of any communicable disease they must report and keep the record. Because now the private practitioner just writes everything on a piece of paper and will throw away and when there is a complaint of negligence we are not in a position to take any action because there is no proof.

The whole idea is to regulate and not to punish them. If they do not comply with these regulations there are provisions to take action against them.

Q: (JVP) openly announced the need to form an alternative government. How does the government get the support of the JVP in any political movement including the peace process?

A: The government of Mahinda Rajapaksa is willing to work with any party to defeat terrorism, to bring law and order to the country and ensure prosperity. The President formed an alliance and we have a national government today with persons of various divergent political views and representations. So it is not a one party government.

We invited the JVP to join us and had lengthy discussions. But it failed on three issues because the JVP wants to chase Norway out, Casefire Agreement to be torn and reduce the number of ministers. We explained to them that these are not practical at the moment because we do not have a majority in the parliament.

Suppose the SLFP and two other parties can join together and have a majority in parliament, we need not have a very large Cabinet. But to keep everybody together we need to do some adjustments, whether we like it or not. The other alternative is to go for an election but there is no guarantee under this system that one would get a majority. So that is why we brought electoral reforms into the system but the JVP, UNP and TNA objected and they are not cooperating with us.

This is the political reality. We too do not like a large Cabinet but we do not have other alternatives in these circumstances. So this reality has to be addressed. That is why we appointed the select committee to bring proposals for electoral reforms. If all the parties agree to electoral reforms, thereafter we can go for an election. Then either the UNP or the SLFP would also try to get an absolute majority. So without addressing the main cause, we are trying to address the peripheral issues.

As we have found in other countries such as India, we do not have alternative other than to enter into a coalitions. Under the present system you have to work with minority parties and form alliances.

Q: Several Ministers had told the media that former Ministers Mangala and Sripathy sitting in the opposition would not affect much. What's your comment?

A: I think, especially after their meeting with the Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe and when he openly announced that he wants to get pardon of the people, I think the two have committed political suicide. Because it is very clear that they have gone into the UNP though they have called themselves the SLFP (Mahajana Party). They are really UNPers and want to support Ranil Wickremesinghe either directly or indirectly. So they are no more a force in the country and they can not get a single SLFP vote. May be a few people who are round them may change with them and that will have no effect for the SLFP and we are quite confident on that.

Q: According to these two MPs, more SLFP backbenchers hope to join the new group. How would the government cope if such a situation arises?

A: The first thing is that such a situation will never arise. Surely there is no one to follow them.

Q: But President Rajapaksa has said that he would dissolve Parliament if more MPs quit the government. Is there any crisis to say so?

A: No. There is no crisis as such. We are confident that we can win. Because we have almost cleared the East and we have done lots of development work in the country. So, we do not have any fear of going for an election. But the only thing is that holding an election is an unwanted cost to the country and that is what we are concerned with.

While there is no idea to dissolve the government at this juncture, we are not afraid of elections.

Q: Apart from Mangala-Sripathy group, other opposition movements have started campaigning against the government. How does the government face the opposition ?

A: Always the Government has the challenge of governing because anywhere in the world people who are in the driving seat they face the challenge. Otherwise you should not take the challenge. That is part of governance. The people in the opposition can shout and demand various things but people who are governing have to deliver. The rising cost of living and fuel prices and defeating terrorism are such challenges.

We are confident that we can face these challenges. That is our responsibility and people have entrusted that responsibility to us because they are confident about President Rajapaksa and his team. People know that they are eligible to govern this country. So we have to go ahead with that authority and we are not here to abrogate that authority.

We cannot just run away as somebody is criticising us. If there is some substance in it we have to rectify our defects and go ahead. This is our policy.

Q: After every defeat of the LTTE, the international community exert pressure on the Government to resume peace talks. Does the Government experience the same pressure this time?

A: The Government is ever ready and willing for peace talks. That was the LTTE who ran away all the time and the LTTE was not genuine in negotiating.

The Government went with a genuine desire but the LTTE always came with their own short-term agenda to achieve something to strengthen them.

Even now the Government is willing for talks but they should come for unconditional talks. No conditions should be imposed and they must discuss the substantive issues on devolution and talk to us.

Q: We did not see much difference in the North and the East during the absence of the SLMM. What is the reason for them to return to the scene when the Sri Lankan armed forces are liberating the people from the Tiger clutches?

A: I think it is because of reasons best known to them.