Following the strike by State hospital doctors demanding the Health Ministry proceed with further action to establish a special service category titled the ‘Sri Lanka Medical Service’, the Ministry said that it is “closely observing the situation.”

The Ministry Secretary, Dr. Anil Jasinghe, responding to questions from The Daily Morning yesterday (26) regarding the long drawn-out demand by doctors in the Government service for several monetary gains for their service category, said that the Ministry was “keeping a close watch on the situation in the State medical service at present.”

The Government Medical Officers Association demands that the Ministry proceed with further action after obtaining Cabinet of Ministers approval for the Cabinet paper drafted with the participation and consensus of all stakeholders to establish a special service category called the “Sri Lanka Medical Service”, incorporating doctors from all categories, updating the Disturbance, Availability and Transport allowance of doctors, resolving transport-related issues in line with Circular 22/99, converting the additional duty allowance into a permanent allowance and resolving issues related to the research allowance. 

They called for the Ministry to commence discussions with the Finance Ministry from this month (January 2026) to resolve the above issues within a given time frame.

However, as reported by The Daily Morning last week, the Association of Medical Specialists has called for the Government to separate them from the Grade Medical Officers’, claiming that medical specialists need clear administrative recognition and a pay structure that mirrors their postgraduate training and additional responsibilities in the medical field.