Prof. not merely of letters but with a caring heart too
While we may safely assume that all eminent Professors have reached their eminence by virtue of their brain-power, not all of them make it clear they have a heart as well, in the genuine concern they show for the welfare of the students they teach. This struck me when I spoke with Prof. Gita Fernando, Senior Professor of Pharmacology of the Faculty of Medical Sciences of the University of Sri Jayewardene pura (SriJ).
Gita Perera as she then was, had her schooling at Holy Family Convent Bambalapitiya and at Visakha Vidyalaya. She passed out from the Colombo Medical College in 1973 with Second Class Honours and a distinction in Pharmacology. She did her internship at the General Hospital, Colombo, and then served as Medical Officer at the Base Hospital, Panadura. Later on, after marriage and motherhood, she went to England for postgraduate studies. She trained in General Medicine and Geriatric Medicine under the National Health Service. She passed the MRCP (UK) examination and was awarded FRCP (Lond.).
Professor Gita Fernando. Pic by Mangala Weerasekera
She is also a Fellow of the Ceylon College of Physicians (FCCP). She was awarded Privileges of Board Certification in MD General Medicine by the Postgraduate Institute of General Medicine (PGIM), University of Colombo.
On her return to Sri Lanka following postgraduate training, she was appointed Resident Physician at the Colombo General Hospital and was then transferred to Kandy General Hospital where she served as Resident Physician for two years. She was provided with quarters in Kandy, so was able to have her little daughter, Hasini, with her and put her into school there, while her husband, Textile Engineer Nisal Fernando, stayed back in Colombo and joined them at weekends.
Gita had served in the Dept. of Health Services for ten years when she applied for and was given the post of Senior Lecturer in Pharmacology at the Colombo Medical Faculty in 1984. In due course, she was appointed Head of the Dept. of Pharmacology and was then promoted as Associate Professor. She served in the Colombo Medical Faculty for 13 ½ years.
It was during this period that Gita became concerned about her students’ wellbeing. “I realised that many of the students in all the different Faculties had economic problems. I wanted to help them in some way, so I initiated a Students’ Distress Relief Fund at the Colombo University. I was fortunately able to raise Rs.200, 000 towards this.”
Gita later started a Medical Students Financial Assistance Scheme at the Colombo Medical Faculty. A questionnaire was sent to the medical students regarding their home background and financial resources, followed by an interview, after which they were given financial help according to their needs.
The Sri Lanka Prescriber: Independent information on medicines
Subsequently, she inaugurated a similar, ongoing scheme for medical students at Sri Jayewardenepura.
In 1997, she joined the Sri Jayewardenepura University as Founder-Professor of Pharmacology. Here, she introduced the first-ever Bachelor of Pharmacy (B.Pharm) course (4 years), in a Sri Lankan university. This course was open to students who did Biological Sciences at the A’Levels and to pharmacists working in the Health Dept., after an aptitude test. Gita said she wanted to underscore the importance of doctors and pharmacists working together as a health-care team. About five batches of B.Pharm graduates have passed out. She thought it was unfortunate that the Health Dept. initially employed these pharmacy graduates on contract instead of giving them permanent employment, because this resulted in some of them going abroad or joining the private sector.
In 2004, Gita was appointed Faculty Co-ordinator to “Improve Relevance and Quality of Undergraduate Education” (IRQUE), a 5-year project funded by the World Bank. This covered many activities, including Revision of Medical Curriculum and Developing Language, Computer and Skills laboratories to improve English and Communication, Information Technology and Clinical Skills.
Since 1989, Gita has served as Specialist Consultant in Drug Regulation and is the Secretary of the Drugs Evaluation Sub-Committee (DESC) which is an advisory Technical Committee responsible for recommending registration of drugs and other regulatory matters. The committees, on which she still serves, are too numerous to list here, but I must mention her membership on the`Cosmetics, Devices and Drugs Technical Advisory Committee’, a statutory committee chaired by the Director General of Health Services and responsible for advising the Minister of Health on drug regulation. She was assigned the task of revising the existing out-patient prescription form and she developed a standard out-patient prescription form. Gita was on the Board of Directors of both the State Pharmaceutical Corporation (SPC), and the State Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Corporation (SPMC).
Something that Gita is particularly pleased about is that from 1993 onwards she has been Joint Editor of an invaluable journal known as The Sri Lanka Prescriber (SLP) that provides independent, up-to-date information on medicines.
The SLP is a member of the International Society of Drug Bulletins (ISDB) which comprises about 80 prestigious bulletins published worldwide. Gita, a former President of the Sri Lanka Medical Association (SLMA), is presently Chairperson of the SLMA’s Medicinal Drugs Committee. This committee organised lecture updates on medicines that are in common use, with the objective of promoting the continued professional development of doctors. It has also prepared `Patient Information Leaflets’ (PILs), to be printed in Sinhala, Tamil and English, with the SPC meeting the cost of the printing and arranging fortheir distribution at a nominal fee, in the near future.
In 2005, Gita was promoted Senior Professor at Sri Jayewardenepura University. She retired in 2013, but has been re-employed by the University. In 2012, she gave the the Susan George Pulimood Memorial Oration and spoke on “The Marvels of Modern Medicine”. She also delivered the Senaka Bibile Oration on “Drug Information – Truth and Myth.” The Board of the Medical Faculty of Sri Jayewardenepura University has recommended to the University Senate that she be made Emeritus Professor.
Gita’s husband passed away several years ago. She is very proud of her daughter, Hasini, who obtained a B.Com. Special Degree with 2nd Class Hons (Upper Division) at the Faculty of Management Studies & Commerce of the SriJ University and has passed the CIMA exams and now has Associate qualification in ACMA. Hashini is married and works at the DFCC Bank.
So dedicated did Gita sound about her work, that I was curious to know whether she had found time for outside interests. She does, indeed, have several interests. She enjoys playing the piano and listening to music, especially Western classical music, and also to Sinhala songs and instrumental music. Films and theatre are her other chosen forms of relaxation, as are reading and travelling.
I wondered aloud what had given her the most satisfaction in her 40 years of distinguished service in her chosen profession. Gita replied that while she had enjoyed both teaching students and treating patients, her greatest satisfaction came from the fact that she was able to upgrade the education of pharmacists. I would say that her daughter Hasini has ample reason to feel proud of the illustrious and caring woman who is her mother.