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Specialists threaten en masse resignation from GMOA over unfair treatment
A powerful Sri Lankan health trade union is being shaken to its very foundations with a strong move by senior members to pull out en masse before the end of April.
A large number of specialist doctors (consultants) attached to state hospitals across the country have decided to tender their resignations from the membership of the Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA), the Sunday Times learns.
“Some of us have posted our letters of resignation to the GMOA,” confirmed Dr. Ravi Dayasena who is attached to the National Hospital in Colombo, adding that many others are expected to follow suit from around the country.
The dispute is over the lingering need to create a Specialists’ Register and wages levels. The proposed Specialists’ Register refers to a list of all qualified specialists working in Sri Lanka to be maintained by the Sri Lanka Medical Council.
There are around 2,000 specialists working in state hospitals, according to him and around 60 specialists from the National Hospital have already resigned from the GMOA, with 60 more expected to do the same from the Kandy Teaching Hospital.
The Sunday Times understands that 17 specialists from the Negombo Hospital have also resigned from the GMOA.
At a well-attended meeting organised by the Consultants’ Forum at the National Hospital last Sunday (March 29), specialists from around the country expressed serious concern with regard to the treatment meted out to them by the GMOA, it is learnt.
A decision has also been taken to inform all specialists working in the provinces of the situation, Dr. Dayasena said.
The specialists feel that the GMOA leadership is giving them “step-motherly treatment” with regard to salary issues linked to the Medical Service Minute, according to him. The salary issue hinges on the fact that over the years, the significant proportional difference between the basicsalaries of specialists — who have undergone extensive training for seven-to-eight years and have more skills, experience and responsibilities — and those of grade medical officers has gradually narrowed.
Numerous appeals to the GMOA by the specialists seem to have fallen on deaf ears, said Dr. Dayasena.
Another bone of contention has been the urgent need to introduce the Specialists’ Register, said Dr. Dayasena, stressing that the GMOA leadership has been dragging its feet with regard to its introduction through amendments to the Medical Ordinance.
He pointed out that on hearing about the resignations of the specialists from the GMOA, its leadership has now got activated and is making arrangements to hold a meeting under the chairmanship of the Director-General of Health Services on April 9 with regard to the Specialists’ Register. “We are not sure what is to be discussed at this meeting, as the Association of Medical Specialists and the Consultants’ Forum along with Health Ministry officials and the Sri Lanka Medical Council have already finalized the draft amendments to the Medical Ordinance,” he reiterated.
“It is very clear that the current GMOA leadership is not looking after the interests of the specialists but in fact undermining our interests,” he said, calling it a “sad situation”, as specialists have been very much a part of the GMOA and worked towards its strengthening over the years.
“We don’t want to fight with them. So we have decided that it is better to get out of the GMOA,” added Dr. Dayasena.
When contacted, GMOA President Dr. Anuruddha Padeniya, himself a specialist, said that although there are reports in the media that a large number of specialists would be resigning from the GMOA, it has still not received notice of such resignations. “This is nothing new,” he said, adding that on and off there is much noise but nothing comes of it.
With regard to allegations that the GMOA is giving step-motherly treatment to specialists, he said that under his presidency he was able to secure pay-hikes amounting to three-fold for them without resorting to strike action.
He reiterated that he and the GMOA are pushing for a National Wage Policy for all government servants.
Alleging that the Medical Service Minute issue cropped up before his time as President of the GMOA, Dr. Padeniya also pointed out that he was the first person to push for the introduction of a Specialists’ Register.
“We have not been able to introduce it because some private hospitals have gone to court and now the matter is sub-judice,” he said, adding that the meeting on April 9 is to discuss how to introduce the Specialists’ Register as an administrative mechanism and not under the Medical Ordinance.
| Association of Medical Special ists flexes its muscles Moves are underway to strengthen the Association of Medical Specialists (AMS) as a parallel trade union of senior doctors, with its annual general meeting being announced for April 26. This follows the intransigent attitude of the current GMOA leadership, sources said. The AMS, although formed way back in the 1950s, had been defunct until 2005 when it was revived and re-registered under the Trade Union Ordinance with about 375 specialists joining within the first six months, it is learnt. “However, urgent assurances by the GMOA and the formation of a Consultants’ Sub-committee within the GMOA’s General Committee, stymied a full breakaway by the specialists from the GMOA in 2005,” another source said. Categorically refuting the claim by GMOA President Dr. Anuruddha Padeniya that he was the person who brought in the proposal to set up a Specialists’ Register, AMS Secretary Dr. Harischandra Gambheera was quick to point out that it came about way back from 2004 onwards. Asking how grade medical officers as part of the SLMC governing body could mete out disciplinary action, when the need arose, against specialists who were their seniors, Dr. Gambheera said that it was then that it was felt that the specialists should be considered a ‘separate distinct group’. This was after taking into consideration the years of training, experience and responsibilities they had over grade medical officers. “However, the GMOA leadership kept talking about a Specialists’ Register, dangling it as ‘bait’ to keep the specialists within the GMOA and not leaving to join the AMS. But the GMOA never did anything about it for 10 years and even worked against the approved Cabinet paper in this connection,” he said. Meanwhile, other sources pointed out that the Specialists’ Register is vital in the light of many none specialists pretending to be specialists and duping patients. The source also explained that the rift between the specialists and the GMOA leadership deepened last year when alleged attempts were made by the latter to intimidate and disrupt a meeting of the Consultants’ Forum of the National Hospital. At that time, the GMOA leadership was crisis-ridden with many legal battles being fought in different courts of law between different factions of the GMOA. The source explained that everyone knows that the GMOA has been politicised for some time and that this once-respected trade union is being manipulated by those with vested interests. “With the AMS being strengthened, the specialists would be able to fight their own battles,” he said, adding that the GMOA will not be able to dictate and decide at the drop of a hat, often unreasonably, to launch strikes jeopardizing the lives of patients. “We are not anti-GMOA. But hereafter it will have to consult with the AMS before launching a strike and we will see whether its demands are justified and whether we should support them. With the strengthening of the AMS there will be checks and balances and this would be good for the health sector,” he added. |