Malabe private college issue reaching crisis situation
State medical faculty chiefs hold emergency meeting Joint statement expected on Thursday after talking to Higher Education Minister
As the controversial Malabe private medical college issue reached flashpoint with cross-country protests, heads of the eight state Medical Faculties held an emergency meeting yesterday in the backdrop of fears of a 1987-89-like situation breaking out.
They are due to meet Higher Education Minister Lakshman Kiriella on Thursday, after which they will issue a joint statement, the Sunday Times understands.
The Deans are from the state Medical Faculties of Colombo, Peradeniya, Jaffna, Ruhuna, Kelaniya, Sri Jayawardanapura, Eastern and Rajarata.
Voicing concern that the State universities seem to be descending into chaos and protests, similar to the 1987-89 era, a Dean reiterated that something needs to be done right now.
Pointing out that the schedules of the state Medical Faculties are being continuously disrupted as students go onto the streets to protest against the South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine (SAITM), the Dean, who declined to be named, said that a resolution of the problem is needed urgently.
This is while the matter is currently in court where SAITM students are seeking provisional registration to practise medicine.
Today’s debate over SAITM is that while opponents argue that it was not properly set up under the legal process and lacks proper clinical facilities, proponents (SAITM owners and students) contend that the institute has been officially given the status of a degree-awarding facility and that the SLMC by virtue of that must provide its endorsement.
The medical profession compulsorily requires a period of internship before medical graduates are entitled to practise as doctors. While that internship, after passing the final MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery), is automatic in local state medical faculties as they are recognised by the SLMC, those who seek medical education abroad must not only attend a medical faculty recognised by the SLMC but must also on their return, if they wish to prac- tise in Sri Lanka, sit the Examination for Registration to Practice Medicine (ERPM earlier known as Act 16).
It is the set practice in many countries to ensure that medical doctors are up to the required standards as they are dealing with patients.
This is where the SAITM problem lies – with controversial beginnings in 2008, it was recognised as a degree-awarding institution in 2011 subject, under the law, to approval by the SLMC. However, it has gone ahead taking in several batches of students totalling nearly 900 without getting the all-important and vital registration from the SLMC. Without SLMC endorsement, which is dependent on whether facilities, especially for clinical training, are adequate, those passing out of SAITM cannot seek provisional regis- tration for their internship and subsequent full registration to practise as doctors.
The SLMC, meanwhile, after a desk evaluation and a site visit by a 10-member team last year has recommended to Health Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne that SAITM should be de-registered.
Senior doctors who have been following the SAITM saga since 2009 stressed that many people including some SAITM students and parents seemed unaware about the important role of ‘medical watchdog’ bestowed by law on the SLMC.
“The SLMC cannot be equated with any trade union to muddy the waters in which SAITM is now in and create a lot of confusion,” pointed out one doctor, for the SLMC by law, the Medical Ordinance, has been mandated to perform two very important tasks. The SLMC has been set up through an Act of Parliament and is not a trade union neither is it a political organisation. It is there to safeguard the public in Sri Lanka. The SLMC’s mandates are: • The mandate of upholding standards of medical education
• The mandate of ensuring that patients are assured of safe medical care – safe patient care.
Another doctor explained that the SLMC is empowered to inspect certain institutions and investigate certain procedures. This role cannot and should not be undermined.
Even the Universities Act is very clear, another pointed out, which states: “The Minister shall before making a Degree Awarding Institute Order under section • A comprehensive application should be submitted to the Minister of Higher Education to set up a private medical faculty with degree-awarding status. As medicine is a specialised subject, there should be stringent controls and the applying organisation should provide proof beyond any doubt how competent it is to set up a private medical faculty. Some of the categories that the organisation should provide specific proof in should be financial, technical, teaching cadre as well as infrastructure including the ability to set up a teaching hospital. The Minister, will then, appoint a high-powered committee (under the Universities Act) to go into the application in-depth and submit a report. Thereafter, based on that report, the Minister will grant or refuse permission to set up this private medical faculty with degree-awarding status. Before recruitment of students, a review panel would be sent to report on the status. This review panel would include members from the Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC) as it is the body which sets and maintains standards for medical education in Sri Lanka. When the medical faculty is functioning, the monitoring body, which would be the SLMC, would send teams at least twice a year to inspect and report back on the maintenance of standards. If standards drop, the institution would be warned and given time to correct them. As a last resort, the Minister can de-recognise the medical faculty from being a degree-awarding institute. • • • • • 25A in respect of an Institution, obtain a report in relation to such institution, including the educational facilities provided therein, from the Specified Authority.” http://www.ugc.ac.lk/en/ policy/universities-act/29.html
This clearly implies that degree-awarding status, which SAITM has received, is subject to clearance by the SLMC, the authority set up by Parliament to approve medical universities among other functions.
Another senior doctor said that at no stage should the SLMC be equated to the Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) or any related medical service union which has different functions and objectives.
“While the SLMC is a body that has wide-ranging functions including removing a doctor from practising if found guilty of an offence, unions serve different purposes,” he said, adding that if the role of the SLMC is undermined, there would be chaos in the medical sector.
Meanwhile, the last few weeks have been filled with demonstrations and trade union action against SAITM and media briefings by a parents’ organisation for SAITM amidst calls for a resolution of the crisis from a few political parties.
In another development connected to the uncertainty over SAITM, parents and students are now divided on what course of action should be followed.