Wait for teaching hosptal: SLMC tells SAITM students

The Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC) said yesterday that third year students at the medical college in Malabe, which does not have a teaching hospital, who wished to begin their clinicals, should either complete their education at a Russian university affiliated to the college or wait until the institution’s teaching hospital was built to complete their MBBS degree.

The South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine (SAITM) had come under intense scrutiny criticized by several medical professionals after the government gave it legal recognition through a gazette notification issued in August

“Some legal experts are of the view that it is possible to complete part of the degree abroad. They say there is a provision for it in the law”

last year. A number of doctors and experts were of the opinion that SAITM should not function without a teaching hospital. According to the Sri Lanka Medical Ordinance a MBBS degree should be completed in a single country in order to be allowed to practice medicine here.

However SLMC’S newly appointed chief Prof. Carlo Fonseka said that this may not be the case. “Some legal experts are of the view that it is possible to complete part of the degree abroad. They say there is a provision for it in the law,” Fonseka said. He said that if the students were not happy with this arrangement they could wait until the SAITM’S teaching hospital was built and got recognized by the SLMC. He said it was uncertain as to when the construction of the building would be completed but that these were the options available to the students. However the sooner the hospital was built the better it would be for the students, he said.

“Our aim is to offer our medical students all the facilities they need to become competent doctors. Their training cannot be second to any other medical college in Sri Lanka,” he said.