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No power to extend retirement age for docs: Public Admin Ministry  

12 Oct 2022

BY Dinitha Rathnayake The Public Administration Ministry possesses no authority to extend the retirement age of health professionals, and therefore, will abide by the decision of the Health Ministry, said Secretary to the Public Administration Ministry M.P.K. Mayadunne. Speaking to The Morning, Mayadunne said: “The Health Ministry can make a decision on this matter and put forward a Cabinet paper and we can then accommodate that decision.”  The Association of Health Professionals is to enter into trade union (TU) action against any moves to extend the retirement age for medical professionals only. Association President Ravi Kumudesh, speaking to The Morning, said that it is unjust to other health professionals if the retirement age is thus extended for a specific segment. “Some parties of the Government are working to reverse the gazette that revised the retirement age for the Government service to 60 years. A Ministerial support committee has been appointed to change the decision of Minister of Health Keheliya Rambukwella, and after discussing with only a few expert doctors who are close to him, a recommendation to extend the retirement age of medical professionals to the age of 63 years was put forward by the Cabinet on Monday (10).  “By now, more than 300 medical specialists have informed the President about the damage that may be caused to them and their services by extending the retirement age, but the Cabinet has gone an extra mile by giving recommendations only to the wishes of one specialist doctor who is past the age of 60 years,” Kumudesh alleged. Meanwhile, speaking to The Sunday Morning, Rambukwella, while stressing the fact that nothing concrete had been decided yet, stated that medical professionals in certain specialities may be exempt from the newly mandated retirement age of 60 years, considering the needs of the public health sector. They may also be granted contract extensions for around one to two years, he noted.  “As of now, the revised retirement age applies across the board to all public sector workers and semi-Government employees, including medical professionals. Nothing final has been decided with regard to this, but medical professionals in certain speciality areas may have to be retained on a contract basis for about one to two years,” he explained. The interim Budget for 2022 proposed to reduce the retirement age of public sector and semi-Government employees to 60 years, reversing the decision made by the Ministry of Public Administration in early 2022 to extend the retirement age of public servants to 65 years. In such a situation, a total of 300 specialist doctors will have to retire from the public service on or before 31 December 2022. The Association of Specialist Doctors emphasised that under this directive, existing specialist doctors at Provincial and primary hospitals will have to be transferred to fill the vacancies caused by the retirement of specialist doctors. The association stated that it is not possible to transfer specialist doctors without filling the vacancies first. Usually, only specialist doctors who have already undergone training abroad can be transferred in this manner. However, in view of the current crisis in the country, a significant group of specialist doctors are likely to remain abroad, the association noted.  In such a case, the entire health service, including remote hospitals may also collapse. The association pointed out that according to the new circular, 43 specialists of the Colombo National Hospital, 30 specialists of the Kandy National Hospital, 17 specialists of the Karapitiya Teaching Hospital, 15 specialists of the Lady Ridgeway Children’s Hospital, and nine specialists of the National Cancer Institute or the Apeksha Hospital will be required to retire.  


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