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SLMC seeks clarification from Private Medical College applying for recognition
The Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC) which governs medical education and standards on Friday decided to seek clarification from the Malabe Private Medical College (PMC) on several “serious concerns” with regard to its application for recognition.
The SLMC which met on Friday decided on this course of action, following a request by the PMC which comes under the South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine (SAITM) to visit the institution and grant it recognition, the Sunday Times learns.
About 200 students from the Colombo Medical Faculty picketing near the gate of the SLMC. Pic by M.D. Nissanka
With regard to a subsequent letter from SAITM requesting information about the minimum standards for medical education, the SLMC has decided to seek legal opinion, sources said.
Regarding the serious concerns that have arisen on perusing the ‘Application for recognition of a Medical Faculty/School in Sri Lanka’, the SLMC would be writing to the PMC for clarification, sources said, adding that one was the “highly inadequate clinical exposure of its medical students”.
Another major concern was that though the lecturer-student ratio was given as 1:7, there seemed to be some miscalculation as the names of some lecturers appeared in several places.
The Sunday Times understands that the PMC’s ‘Application for recognition’ was reviewed by three senior professors, who are members of the SLMC, before the matter was taken up earlier by the SLMC’s Education Committee and finally on Friday by the full SLMC.
SAITM was earlier known as the South Asian Institute of Technology and Management (SAITM) but subsequently changed its name and maintained the same acronym, when it added a medical college to the institution. Since then the medical college has been dogged by controversy with wide-ranging protests by different groups with regard to the way it was set up as well as the lack of facilities.
While the SLMC was meeting on Friday at its Norris Canal Road office, about 200 students from the Colombo Medical Faculty picketed near the gate, carrying posters and placards.
When the Medical Faculty Students’ Action Committee sought a meeting with SLMC President Prof. Carlo Fonseka to hand over a letter detailing why the SLMC should not grant recognition to the Malabe PMC, they were told to submit it to a staff member of the SLMC. The Students’ Action Committee comprises those from all eight State medical faculties of the Colombo, Kelaniya, Ruhuna, Peradeniya, Sri Jayawardhanpura, Rajarata, Jaffna and Eastern Universities, a spokesperson said.
The Action Committee states that the “illegal degree distributing institute named SAITM has not obtained any permission or approval from any relevant stakeholders before starting their venture”.
The application sent by SAITM to the SLMC for accreditation is inaccurate, the Action Committee states, alleging that some statements in the application are “false and consciously altered”.
The Action Committee points out that the Health Minister has stated in Parliament that the Neville Fernando Hospital is not a Teaching Hospital, as recognised by the State. The other three private hospitals, Nawaloka, Oasis and Asiri Surgical, used by SAITM for clinical teaching are also not teaching hospitals.
On October 27, several other organisations including the Federation of University Teachers’ Associations (FUTA), the All Ceylon Medical Officers’ Association, the All Ceylon Teachers’ Union and the All Ceylon Principals’ Union had made strong representations to Prof. Carlo Fonseka against the granting of recognition to SAITM.