Sports medicine unit: Where are the surgeons and specialists?

cian must have adequate training in the field of sports medicine and the mere fact that they are medical doctors (or even professors) certainly does not qualify them for the appointment as sports medicine specialists.

I am aware that several athletes have sought treatment from doctors in the appropriate field and it has been the observation of these doctors in general that a fair proportion of sports injuries (treated by doctors at various sports medicine facilities and clinics) have in fact been mismanaged, thereby causing long-term and sometimes permanent injury to these athletes. In some teaching hospi- tals, there are even unqualified senior house officers who conduct sports medicine clinics and are designated as ‘team doctors’ for school sports teams. It is high time such unqualified specialists, who also function as ‘nutritional advisers’ to school children, were exposed and authorities took stern action against them. The public and athletes need to be made aware that other than general medical issues which can be assessed by qualified sports physicians, all injuries must necessarily be assessed by a surgical team including orthopaedic surgeons. B.G. Iliacus Battaramulla

Reports in the Sunday Times last week expose the sad state of affairs in our country.

According to your reports, it would appear the Government does not know how to govern and our so-called disaster management centres do not know how to manage disasters.

You cannot govern or manage if there are no accountability procedures and performance measures in place. It also appears that the government is the biggest roadblock on the path of Sri Lanka’s businesses functioning efficiently. Faceless bureaucrats cause undue delays. They seem to devise endless and meaningless hoops for the businessman to jump through, simply for the pleasure of making him jump.

In the case of the Disaster Management Centre, if the Government wants to defend its claim to be competent, it should hold employees, particularly those right at the top, accountable to the lapses. Equipment worth billions of rupees are gone to pot, thanks to these officials and the debt burden is passed on to future generations. To what consequence?

I challenge the Government to give me the Army and in six months I will have the flooding problem in Colombo under control. The ‘Ajiths of Joy Lanka Watte’ and such cronies of power-wielders will be history. They will be flung off their illegal holdings for defiling Mother Earth, just like Jesus flung out the traders in the temple. Ranjan Via email