Ranjan pooh-poohs GMOA chief 's account; Padeniya blames hospital
Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) President Dr. Anuruddha Padeniya claimed yesterday that a communication delay between Nawaloka Hospital and an e-channeling website had allowed Deputy Minister Ranjan Ramanayake to schedule an appointment with him on Friday, the day on which the GMOA launched an islandwide strike.
Dr. Padeniya, a paediatric neurologist, told the Sunday Times he did not join the trade union action because he was attached to the Lady Ridgeway Children's Hospital, one of the specialised hospitals where doctors were asked not to join the strike.
“I even held my clinics as usual on the day of the strike. But as a rule, I don’t engage in private practice on days the GMOA is on strike,” he said.
The GMOA President claimed that he informed the private hospital the day before the strike that he would not be seeing patients.
“If Mr. Ramanayake had obtained his appointment from the hospital, he would have been told that I was on leave. He however, had made an appointment through an e-channeling service. I don’t inform e-channeling services and I don’t even know who handles them. It is the duty of the hospitals to do that. From what I understand, the message had only gone to the website on Friday morning. That is not my fault,” he said.
Dr. Padeniya said he was disappointed that Sports Minister Dayasiri Jayasekara had taken a snap of Mr. Ramanayake's appointment bill and showed it in Parliament.
Deputy Minister Ramanayake, however, disputed Dr Padeniya’s claims. “I paid for my appointment at 10.39pm on Thursday. Mine was appointment number 6. Some of my friends also made appointments to see if Dr. Padeniya was available on Friday and they were booked as well. It was only at 12.10 pm on Friday that the hospital called me to say that the doctor would not be coming. By that time, Dr. Padeniya had 12 appointments for him,” he claimed.
Mr. Ramanayake said he got to know from the hospital that it was only an hour before he got the call that Dr. Padeniya had called the hospital to say he would not be coming.
“I paid Rs.1,925 for the appointment and only on Friday afternoon I was informed about the doctor's unavailability. What happens to people who come from outstations? Some would likely have already left home by the time they were informed,” he said.
The deputy minister said the GMOA had announced its intention to strike early in the week and the hospital should have been informed earlier. Mr. Ramanayake said he made the appointment with the intention of exposing the duplicity of GMOA officials.