• Authorities claim prog. only temporary

Claiming that the provision of professorial unit based medical training to students of the Medical Faculty of the Sabaragamuwa University through medical specialists attached to the Ministry of Health may compromise the minimum standards with regard to medical education in the country, the Medical Faculty Students' Action Committee has requested the Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC) to look into the matter.

Following the related Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between several parties, the provision of the professorial unit based medical training to students of the Medical Faculty of the Sabaragamuwa University at the Provincial General (Teaching) Hospital in Ratnapura commenced on Monday (18).

In a letter addressed to the SLMC President, Prof. Vajira H.W. Dissanayake, the Action Committee has raised concerns over the said programme as well as the SLMC's Accreditation Unit's conduct with regard to it. The letter states that the relevant gazette notification with regard to the minimum medical education standards mentions that at least 100 beds should be there for each discipline of medicine, namely, Surgery, Paediatrics and Gynaecology and Obstetrics, and that there should be at least 30 beds for Psychiatry. Altogether, the letter states that there has to be at least 430 beds for a professorial unit. "However, the recommendation of the SLMC's Accreditation Unit on the professorial unit at the Ratnapura Teaching Hospital has interpreted the bed occupancy rate as ‘two patients per student’. As the final year batch of the Sabaragamuwa Medical Faculty consists of 70 students, the minimum number of patients that should be presented at a time is 140. This situation creates a clear conflict between the provisions of the relevant gazette notification." When considering the relevant communication made by the Accreditation Unit, the Action Committee claimed that the said Unit had overruled the minimum standards of medical education. "As a whole, these recommendations can lay down the foundation for establishing a professorial unit with a minimum number of patients with a poor patient variety as encountered in a base hospital. These minimum standards were prepared by the Ministry in consultation with the SLMC. The SLMC has been involved in stipulating these standards. As per the accepted legal maxim, Nemo Contra Factum Suum Venire Potest (no one can go against his/her own previous act), the SLMC is bound to stand with the related standards." Noting that the said standards have been passed by the Legislature, the Action Committee stated that overruling or undermining them by any authority would be considered as the undermining of Parliamentary supremacy. "This can create doubts within the existing legal framework of the country as well. Therefore, we believe that nothing should go contrary to these standards. Undermining them in this manner could be used as precedents during legal disputes too. Therefore, we are seriously concerned about the minimum standards of medical education and we object to any attempt to compromise them at any instance."

When contacted by The Daily Morning, a medical specialist who is privy to the programme of the provision of the relevant training to the Sabaragamuwa University's medical students at the Ratnapura Teaching Hospital, said that the programme is only a temporary programme and that medical specialists attached to the Health Ministry are supporting this programme for the betterment of the students. "Several groups, including some parties of the SLMC itself, have been trying to disrupt this programme in the recent past. The letter sent by this Action Committee to the SLMC even contains confidential information of the SLMC. So, how that information got into the letter is also problematic. There is a doubt as to whether someone from the SLMC itself influenced this Action Committee regarding this matter." The medical specialist also explained: "Some of the professorial units of medical faculties had the same scenario some time ago. The General John Kotelawala Defence University's (KDU) medical students also did not have a proper professorial unit. They initially underwent the relevant training at the Sri Jayewardenepura General Hospital. Very recently, the KDU Hospital in Werahera was established as a professorial unit, but, it does not have many patients. In fact, the arrangement with regard to the Sabaragamuwa University is much better than the arrangement with the KDU some time ago. For instance, the clinical staff of the KDU was not permitted to enter any of the wards at the Sri Jayewardenepura General Hospital for about four years."

Speaking to The Daily Morning, the Action Committee's Convenor, Naveen Tharaka said that they were only concerned about the standards of medical education. "We don’t oppose this programme, but, what we say is that the medical specialists at the Ratnapura Teaching Hospital who are teaching these students should resign from the Health Ministry and join the Education Ministry." When queried about the allegation that they may have been influenced by someone from the SLMC, he said: "We wrote the relevant letter based on the relevant gazette notifications, the related MoU, and the communications sent by the Accreditation Unit."

It was recently reported that the deans of a few other medical faculties are against the programme to provide the students of the Sabaragamuwa University with the relevant training with the support of medical specialists attached to the Health Ministry, and that they were planning to have an immediate discussion on the matter. It was learnt that certain deans were of the view that this preparation would have a negative impact on other medical faculties for which there were clinical services consisting of medical specialists attached to the universities themselves.