GMOA launches 24-hour strike against British doctor

The Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) yesterday said they would launch a 24-hour-token strike today at Karapitiya Teaching Hospital against the British doctor who was performing heart surgeries at the hospital. The temporary ban imposed on the British surgeon preventing him from conducting surgeries, was lifted last week on a recommendation made by the Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC) when the GMOA claimed that the British doctor did not have a licence to practice in the United Kingdom (UK) as it needed to be renewed from time to time.

GMOA Secretary Dr. Haritha Aluthge told Daily Mirror that the Director General of Health Services had ordered the hospital director to lift the temporary ban without valid reasons and without conducting an inquiry despite promising to do so.

“When we inquired about the qualifications of this doctor, we found out that he only has the registration of General Medical Council (GMC) in UK and not practising rights.

He was deprived of practising rights in UK in 2015 due to some reason and he had concealed it while he was producing his documents to the SLMC,” he said.

He said the GMOA had only requested the authorities to conduct an inquiry and added that no such inquiry had been conducted as of now.

He said accordingly, the GMOA members in the Karapitiya Teaching Hospital would launch a 24-hour-token strike today starting from 7.00 am.

However, when questioned earlier, a Health Ministry official said this elderly British doctor was performing heart surgeries especially in complicated cases for children.