GMOA – Answer to prevent foreign doctors in Private Hospitals is not giving Govt. ones more flexibility! We should make SL more attractive to our Docs.

Govt. doctors do private practice after hours! We all know that some Govt. hospital surgeons are busy cutting people up at places like Central Hospital at 12 Midnight. Now the GMOA want them to use their leave time to work during normal hours, to combat, or prevent foreign doctors being hired by Private Hospitals.

See link for the demands that have been made by the GMOA

http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=74701

In my opinion GOOD doctors can earn many times their wage at the Govt. in their after-hours practice. I know two doctors who work in the local Govt. hospital, who have roaring practices where they see patients before they go to work, and after they get back. One doctor sees over 50 patients in the evening every day 7 days a week. This is in my suburban setting in Meegoda.

Even if they get a car permit as a perk, they still have to finance the purchase and have to pay over Rs100,000 month to the leasing co or loan payment to the bank, so their Govt, doc income of Rs50,000 per month is not enough. Private practice is NOT an option, but a necessity for them.

GMOA is the Government Medical Officers Association, which represents the Doctors who work in Govt. Hospitals and health facilities. They for some reason do not like foreign doctors working in Sri Lanka. They believe they are either less qualified, or that they take away lucrative income from SL doctors!

This is NOT the answer, and that is NOT the real problem. The real problem is that Doctors do not want to serve in difficult areas, where they have accommodation problems and lack of chance to earn privately. How do we fix the brain drain? The poor pay for doctors to be educated at state expense, only to leave and go overseas, without at least a minimum of 10 years service to the Country.

The problem is NOT foreign doctors, it is the sense of values of the Sri Lankan doctor to appreciate the value of the free education they receive and the obligation they have to the provider of that education, namely their country. I am not for a moment suggesting we prevent doctors from working overseas. All I am saying is that they perform sufficient work within Sri Lanka before they are permitted to leave, or otherwise reimburse the Govt. by way of an enforceable bond, for their education. Isn’t that not fair? We may then not have so many foreign doctors.

In the end the Private hospital must have the best to survive, and if we don’t have local they recruit foreign only out of necessity. They don’t pay them less surely!!!