Letters
View(s):Doctors, think about patients’ welfare
I have been a proud member of the medical profession for nearly 50 years. Though a member of the Sri Lankan school system — and proud to be an old Trinitian — I never received free education to become a doctor.
I was also never in government practice where one receives tax-free incomes which, in effect, means the man-in-the-street is paying (however small an amount) to assist the so-called government servants who are believed to be in a noble profession.
I was in Sri Lanka recently on a three-week visit. During my stay, the news that really sickened me was the behaviour of the Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA), which is supposed to comprise members of the noblest profession.
Their agitation was to get more money for themselves (as though they are not making enough—and tax-free at that).
While speaking to people during my stay in Sri Lanka, including family members, some of whom are doctors themselves, the common charge appears to be greed and arrogance.
This is evident in the “channelling” system where poor patients travel from far and wide at great expense to see the “god like” specialists who spends a few minutes with them. On most occasions, the patients’ questions are not entertained – and in some cases, they are rebuffed.
I would understand and indeed applaud the GMOA if it was to “strike” demanding better conditions for patients — improving the overall system especially to enable the patients to get proper and adequate medicines in public hospitals.
I have some wonderful friends and colleagues who serve as doctors in the public sector. I am certain I will be castigated for this outpouring, but I felt that I am in a better position to state the case as I am not practising in Sri Lanka and I am close to retirement.
This letter is a plea to my medical colleagues in the public service to re-adjust their thinking and work for the benefit of the public, rather than to enrich themselves at the expense of their patients. Primum non nocere—first do no harm—should be the abiding principle.
Dr. M. Fawzy Saleem Staten Island, New York
The Health Ministry should heed Prof. Ratnatunga’s plea
The article titled “My story” by Prof. Channa Ratnatunga which appeared in the “Sunday Times” of January 3, 2016 made interesting and absorbing reading for most of us who have known him for many decades.
As a University teacher, trainer and role model for many undergraduates as well as post-graduate trainees, he was the personification of simplicity, integrity and medical professionalism.
Having made a miraculous recovery from a death defying insult to vital centres in the brain it is incredible that he is able to express himself with such clarity, lucidity and perception.
We have also heard from his friends and colleagues in Kandy that he attends clinical meetings and contributes to discussions as well.
He was very fortunate to have had consultants who have been his students to attend on him, an honour which few consultants are privileged to receive!
As a highly respected and admired teacher whose students are now serving the length and breadth of this island he will receive “Royal Treatment” wherever he goes!! His story is educative and informative to healthcare workers as well as the public.
The importance of early diagnosis, prompt treatment within hours by committed, dedicated and experienced interventionists cannot be overstressed–hence Prof. Ratnatunga’s plea for opening up more stroke units in many provincial hospitals as well with the aim of preventing patients being left with disabilities requiring long term rehabilitation by qualified and experienced support staff such as physiotherapists, occupational therapists and speech therapists.
It must be said that there is a real dearth of such support staff in the public sector, a problem that needs urgent attention by the Health Ministry.
Prof. Ratnatunga has also rightly stressed the role played by the support staff in his physical recovery and even named many of them as an expression of gratitude.
Rehabilitation can be very costly for the state as well as for individual families who cannot easily find an extra pair of hands even to help in activities of daily living.
I hope the Ministry will heed Prof. Ratnatunga’s plea and plan to have stroke units at least in all Teaching Hospitals to start with.
At a time when Cardiology units are available in many provincial hospitals it is only logical that stroke units be similarly established, but with trained support staff available for obtaining optimum benefit from such units.
Otherwise stroke units will end up as costly showpieces and Prof. Ratnatunga’s plea would be in vain.
Dr. Nanda Amarasekera
Colombo
Hopefully UG’s name will be written in blue and gold when the soap opera is over
“Time hath, my Lord, a wallet at his back,
Wherein he puts in alms for oblivion,
A great-sized monster of ingratitudes:
Those scraps are good deeds past, which are devoured
As fast as they are made, forgot as soon as done”.
Shakespeare(Troilus and Cressida)
Upali Gunasekera, the Principal of Royal College was transferred under ungracious circumstances.
He wasn’t remembered or thanked at the gala dinner organised by the Royal College Old Boys’ Union celebrating their 125th year last Sunday.
Among the glitzy diners and a sprinkling of spouses were a number of speeches made and toasts drowned with champers and fine food but not a word of thanks was breathed out for the man who reigned supreme over the school the past 13 years, a feat surpassed by only one Principal before him.
UG wasn’t the flavour of the month with the powers that be for his close dalliance with the previous lot. That the man contributed towards the betterment of the school is without question.
That he helped a number of old boys’ children to enter the school, perhaps covertly, circumventing ministry circulars is also fact.
About a third of entrants to Grade 1 always were kids of papas of an earlier generation. That he had an extra class of 40, alleged in the news by the minister, came from times well before UG descended to the Royal seat, is also fact.
Can one forget the infrastructure developments to Royal during his tenure? The new hostel building, the skills development centre, the scouts complex, the Brandix pavilion, the Edex class rooms and the MAS arena are all accomplishments during this period.
“By all means investigate” said an old wag at the dinner. Added he, “but let’s not throw mud at the man even before investigations begin”.
That no one will raise one finger to help when one is down and out, a Lankan trait of history, is the reality that must have dawned on UG now hounded by the media, the ministry and every one.
Why didn’t the Royal College Union, the School Development Society and other stakeholders take cudgels with the PM, himself an erstwhile Royalist who allegedly ordered UG’s ugly removal?
Why did the PM listen blindly to the Minister–who as reported last week in the Sunday Times wasn’t a Royalist– and go behind UG without any proof?
Was a disgruntled lady evicted from the school by UG and a frustrated past Principal the cause of the current hullabaloo? Why didn’t the 31 parliamentarians who are old Royalists, some of whose sons were helped by UG to enter Royal, come to his rescue?
These were some of the million dollar questions that were posed by many at the gala dinner.
Amongst all the confusion, a fully sloshed oldie did well to alter the words of that old baila about bandi Belleth, twisted to suit the rhythm of the day, to sing- “we are boys of Royal College Kuliyapitiya south”.
Goodbye sweet Sir, hopefully in time, your name will be written in blue and gold in the annals of Royal, when the soap opera is over. Stand upright for now for the wind will blow away not swiftly but surely!
Disce et Discede.
-A grateful old Royalist
Weed out the bad guys constantly, don’t let them rise up
Recently I moved into a house with a huge lawn. However I was dismayed to find half of the lawn overgrown with weeds and it looked like I would have to replant the buffalo grass. I asked a veteran gardener to help me re-lay the lawn.
He gave me amazing advice – just to remove the weed grass and to leave the few buffalo grass saplings that were found underneath.
Lo and behold! When I did just that, they grew fast and strong and I got a lovely full grown lawn without spending a cent! The weeds did not have strong roots so it was very easy to pluck them out unlike the good ones.
This set me thinking. Isn’t it the same with life too? We had all the bad guys at the helm of our government and it looked like an impossible task to rectify the situation.
But when the bad guys were removed the few good guys took over and “yahapalanaya“ was born. The bad guys never had strong roots – they were easy to remove.
However, the story does not end there. When I neglect the lawn and let the weeds grow again – they do with a vengeance unless you remove them with roots – they overtake the good lawn.
The same with the bad politicos – until and unless they are rooted out lot, stock and barrel, they are sure to come again and mar the beauty of the new government. This is exactly what is happening.
It is sad that we have got into the quagmire of JR’s bahubootha politics and seem to be struggling with it having to look for numbers, parties and what not. Man-made rules are meant to be remade. Constantly.
There must be a way with the new President at the helm for this tight rope around the neck of the government to be removed. If there is a will there will be a way. The good guys must figure out a way to keep the weeds at bay – for good.
Dr. Mareena Thaha Reffai,
Dehiwela
Cheers to a doc who truly gives ear to his patients
Recently I took my car to a wheel alignment establishment in Colombo and there I saw a young doctor walking in, holding his stethoscope.
I was wondering why he was carrying his stethoscope into this shop. He had a word with a technician and both of them walked up to the air pump and set out to carry out a careful manoeuvre.
The doctor held his steth from the binaural (long ear tubes ) after removing the plastic ear plugs fixed to it. The technician held it from the chest piece on the other end and started inflating into the tiny hole in it.
I was dumbfounded to see what was happening there and as soon as the doctor left, I ran to the technician and asked him what on earth they were doing.
The answer was surprising. The doctor had told him that when using the stethoscope, ear wax gets into the binaural and as time goes on this wax mars the doctor from hearing the rhythm of the heart beat clearly.
The diagnosis the doctor makes sans this correct sound data, can be faulty. Therefore, the binaural should be cleaned of the earwax periodically.
I don’t know whether this doctor had employed the correct method to clean this sensitive equipment. But I was struck by his concern about his patients.
In fact it was only then that I too realised the importance of having the inside of a stethoscope cleaned in order to enable a doctor to make a correct diagnosis.
Sadly when most of the doctors, as it is very obvious today, have made their noble discipline a money spinning profession, this doctor’s dedication will bring, I believe, a sigh of relief to, at least those who read this.
I ran out to show appreciation to this young doctor’s concern for his patients but he had disappeared by then. May the medico-tribe of this dedicated doctor multiply in this land.
D. Samaranayake
Battaramulla
A place for Malays in the new constitution
Some say there are 50,000 Malays in Sri Lanka and strangely this figure has been constant for the past several decades! Others put the figure at 80,000. But this is not the only issue the Malays of Sri Lanka face today.
The ethnic group ‘Malay’ itself was forgotten for some time until we brought up the matter with President Maithripala Sirisena who subsequently started including this as a distinct ethnic group in his speeches.
We are grateful for his gesture. Malays are distinct from ‘Muslims’, which in a Sri Lankan context refers to Moors.
It is also distressing to note that Malays are not represented in Parliament! Yahapalanaya and the country’s constitution promise equal status for all its citizens irrespective of their race or religion and one would expect all its communities are ‘represented’ in the Parliament.
Unfortunately, since Malays do not live in a particular area and are scattered all over the country, they are unable to elect a single Member to Parliament.
One would argue that Sri Lanka Muslim Congress could easily reserve one of its National List seats to a Malay to overcome this situation but our experience in the past shows the SLMC is not overly bothered about Malays.
Therefore, it is the duty of the Government to ensure that Malays too are represented in the country’s legislature and the only way it could do so is to make provision in the new Constitution to enable a Malay to enter Parliament through the National List.
Sri Lanka’s Malays have their own own culture and language. Mushin Meedin, a prominent Malay, in a social media article summarizes the important and significant roles the Malays play in Sri Lanka. He says:
“Their dominance in the Armed services, Police, Fire Brigade and the Prisons Department was due to their bravery and martial instinct inherited from their forefathers who had come to our country for this very purpose.
Constable Saban was the first Malay to sacrifice his life in the call of duty whilst trying to arrest a legendary outlaw bandit of that time named Saradiel in colonial Ceylon.
In the three decade-long war that ended recently, Malays have played a decisive part in achieving victory over the separatists.
From a minority population of nearly 60,000 people at least 40 gallant Malay warriors have laid down their lives for their motherland, a significant proportion when compared to the members of other majority communities who have taken to the security service as their occupation mainly due to economic necessity.
Ethnically the Malays became only the second highest number of security servicemen killed in action after the majority Sinhalese.
Among the war heroes are many officers who held high ranking posts, meaning that Malays have led from the front. Their outstanding heroism, chivalry and versatility in military matters found them placements in sensitive departments in the armed forces like intelligence, logistics etc.
“Malays of yore had high praise and held with great esteem Tuan Branudin Jayah, the only Malay National Hero of Sri Lanka.
He was the longest serving Principal of the Colombo Zahira College who later took to politics and went on to become the Labour Minister of the first Cabinet of Independent Ceylon under D.S. Senanayake as the Prime Minister. M.D. Kitchilan, M.K. Saldin, Zahier Lye, M.H. Amit were other famous Malays who took to politics at the highest level.”
Constitutionally guaranteed representation in the country’s Parliament under the National List for Malays has become an urgent and important necessity.
Anver Kamiss
Colombo 5
The hell hole that is the Maharagama highway bus stand
I’m a regular traveller on the Southern highway on weekends. As people know the bus service starts from Maharagama to Galle and Matara. It is really sad to see the hassle people undergo waiting for their turn to get into a bus.
The Maharagama highway bus stand is in an utter mess (if it can be called a bus stand at all).
It’s pathetic to say the least. There is no proper shelter to enable people to stand in a queue. And on most weekends people have to stand for at least 30-45 minutes to get into a bus.
There are several other buses that also use this stand namely, 993, 125, 280, 122 , & 119.
Whenever these buses come along people have to move away from the queue in order to make space for those buses to park. Sooner rather than later a person might get injured or killed since we all know the kind of discipline our bus drivers have.
The time keepers of the highway buses act according to their own personal benefits. If a tip of Rs.300 is given, a person could get to the top of the queue. Most of the time the SLTB Time keeper seems to be helpless.
Not a single policeman is to be seen in the stand which is a major concern. Minister of Transport please look into this matter urgently to safeguard the commuters.
Regular Traveller
Via email
Adjust sonars on ships to detect whales ahead
A literary giant of the 20th century, Herman Melville wrote a whale of a literary text full of classical allusions titled “Moby Dick”, based on a whale.
Malaka Rodrigo’s article appearing in the Sunday Times of Dec.6, last year with comprehensive graphic illustrations gives us the current picture on the threat to whales by marine traffic.
Injury from marine traffic is not the only factor contributing to the imminent extinction of whales.
The classic proven case of Japan’s ship “Yamata Reefer” and the use of harpoons by Norway was brought to the attention of the international community by a smart detective, Paul Brown whose photographic evidence of illicit whale hunting , transport and sale as “fresh frozen whale meat”, was candidly captured in the text by John Millington Ward in all its deceptive detail.
Like the failure in World War II, of a large number of British warships to detect the approach of the German submarines that sank them to their final repose in the bed of the deep blue sea together with the unfortunate crew that manned them, these marine giants possess neither radars to detect nor the arsenal to deter and warn the trade ships that cross their path!
It just happens that these decent and humane denizens of the sea travel at right angles to the direction of the sea-lanes but possess such optical apparatus that are the size of a cow directed forwards and not sideways besides being attended by poor visibility in the brine.
It may thus be an illuminating and mitigating factor if the precise location and nature of their injuries are examined and recorded.
Although cargo ships of today boast of autopilot radar systems and depth-gauging sonars, their captains and crews appear to be indifferent and insensitive as long as their propellers are rigidly shielded by steel bars.
The hoghorns of their radars are rotatably mounted on a vertical axis so that only surface objects of large size are detected by them.
The sonars, on the other hand are so positioned as to detect and measure the depth of irregularities at the bottom of the sea.
In the advanced state of today’s marine engineering it needs no great ingenuity to orient and adjust the sonars to cover the sides and front of the ships to be able to detect such obstacles as the whales that move slowly.
Thineth
via email
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