Are food cartels delaying specialist course? - GMOA

by Carol Aloysius

Are international companies selling nutritional supplements delaying the medical nutritionist course for doctors?

This has been posed by a spokesman for the Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA), who said that the 21 doctors selected by a screening MCQ test last year, out of a total of 180, are still awaiting the green light from the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the Post Graduate Institute of Medicine (PGIM) to launch the course.

"Nutrition is a very important subject. The basic undergrad course that doctors follow is not adequate to give them a comprehensive knowledge of the subject.

By conducting the post graduate level course for doctors who wish to specialise in the field, we hope to create a new breed of doctors, who will be Medical Nutritionists and help Sri Lanka become a healthy nation in the future," GMOA spokesman, Dr. Nalin Herat told the Sunday Observer. He said that due to the one-year delay in starting the course, GMOA officials had met Health Secretary Dr. Nihal Jayatillke on Thursday who assured them he would solve their problem after taking up the matter with the UGC and PGIM.