News
Doctors’ dispute now shifts to law courts
Opposing factions of the Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA), Sri Lanka’s most powerful trade union movement, involved in a bout of fisticuffs at the National Hospital, Colombo on Wednesday, will shift their attention to the Mount Lavinia District Courts where a legal dispute continues.
Left to right: Dr. Chandana Epitakaduwa, Dr. Prasad Ranaweera and Dr. Nishantha Sumathipala at the OPA auditorium. Pic by Athula Devapriya
The case with regard to the suspension of the GMOA elections, held on June 28, and related issues, will come up on Wednesday August 6. It was unclear whether the violence at the National Hospital would be raised when court proceedings resume.
The fracas at the National Hospital (NHSL) ensued when a group of GMOA members including Consultants decided to hold a meeting in the doctors’ canteen about the long overdue elections to their Branch Union after the GMOA leadership had dissolved the branch some time ago, the Sunday Times learns.
“Bottles of sauce were used as missiles and some doctors were pulled by their ties together with verbal threats to prevent the meeting, but the group including the Consultants held the meeting successfully in the Neuro-trauma Unit’s auditorium,” a source from the dissident GMOA faction said.
Doctors distributing leaflets before the dispute occurred. Pic by Indika Handuwala
Condemning the behaviour of a handful of “outside” junior doctors who attempted to disrupt the NHSL GMOA membership meeting, a senior Consultant said the names and video evidence of these “outsiders” who made a futile attempt to cause a disruption have been handed over to the police.
“We held the meeting successfully with about 200 members attending which included about 40 senior Consultants,” he said.
At a news conference organised on Thursday by the GMOA’s ‘General Committee’ as the Executive Committee is defunct due to a court injunction, its spokesperson Dr. Chandika Epitakaduwa denied that the leadership had anything to do with the brawl. When asked by the Sunday Times whether the General Committee could function in view of the legal battle, he said they were doing so on legal advice.
It was the NHSL’s GMOA members themselves who opposed the holding of the meeting, he claimed, explaining that the ‘General Committee’ was there to distribute leaflets to its NHSL members detailing the plight of the GMOA.
However, a senior Consultant who has been part of the GMOA leadership sometime ago, said that there would could be no ‘General Committee’ if the Executive Committee was embroiled in a legal battle and was defunct.
While a cross-section of people including those in the health sector condemned the thuggery of even a handful of doctors, the Sunday Times attempted to sift through the tension and concerns and find out the core issues that have sent the GMOA hurtling into an abyss of simmering dissension.
“The burning issues of the GMOA members such as increments, salaries and our placement in the State sector hierarchy have not been addressed by the leadership,” said a dissident faction source, pointing out that the leadership has been concentrating on extraneous issues.
The source declined to be identified, fearing a barrage of scurrilous e-mails and leaflets, and a massive mud-slinging campaign, even while Dr. Epitakaduwa counter-alleged that there have also been such campaigns against GMOA President Dr. Anuruddha Padeniya.
Cases against the GMOA leadership are ongoing at the Colombo District Court (DC) and the Mount Lavinia DC.
The GMOA dissident group went to the Colombo DC in mid-June, winning an enjoining order against Dr. Harsha Atapattu, part of the Padeniya-led front from contesting the June 28 election.
(Video footage of the doctors’ clash can be viewed on www.sundaytimes.lk)