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Kurunegala doc also investigated for switching newborn
Protests against Dr. Seigu Siyabdeen Mohammed Shafi
A week before Dr. Seigu Siyabdeen Mohamed Shafi was arrested, the Kurunegala Teaching Hospital had recommended disciplinary action over allegations that he forged documents of a newborn to give the baby to another party.
The physician is facing hundreds of accusations of performing non-consensual sterilisations on women who delivered babies at Kurunegala and Dambulla hospitals.
The recommendation by the director of the Kurunegala Teaching Hospital, Dr A.M.S.Weerabandara, had been dated May 13, where he stated that the administrative officer of the hospital had investigated allegations that the name in the bed-head card of a mother had been changed and that a disciplinary inquiry should be held.
The report by the administrative officer says that according to preliminary investigations, the bed-head card of the mother of a new born had been altered in an alleged attempt by Dr Shafi to hand over a newborn to another party.
Accordingly the administrative officer had recommended that the documents be forwarded to the Health Secretary to take disciplinary action against Dr Shafi on charges of preparing forged documents, bringing disrespect to the Health Service and the Kurunegala hospital and by aiding and abetting an illegal act.
This came as more complaints on Dr Shafi flowed in until Friday at Kurunegala and Dambulla hospitals, where he had served, as well as police.
The Denzil Kobbekaduwa Dambulla District Base Hospital has recorded 43 complaints as of Friday. Some complaints go back to 2008.
The complaints varied from health complications after the caesarean operations by Dr Shafi, to failure to conceive again, afterwards.
The complaints have poured in from areas such as Galewela, Dambulla, Alawwa, Narammala, Mahawa, Ambanpola, Melsiripura, Gokarella, Mawathagama, Ridigama, and Polgahawela.
Dr Shafi, originally from Kalawewa, received his secondary education at Gampola Zahira, and entered the Sri Jayawardenapura University Medical faculty from where he graduated as a doctor. After he married from Kurunegala, he had settled in the area.
At the 2015 Parliamentary elections, backed by Minister Rishad Bathiurdeen as a member of his party, the ACMC, he contested on the UNP ticket from the Kurunegala district and was placed eighth. He narrowly missed the opportunity to enter parliament, as the UNP won only seven seats in the district.
During his campaign in an interview with the Lankadeepa newspaper, he had claimed that he had performed 8,000 caesarean operations and handled about 15,000 natural births.
However, Dr Shafi was arrested on May 24 by the police over amassing unexplained wealth.
Meanwhile, the North Western Province’s former education minister Sandhya Kumara Rajapaksa, has lodged a complaint with the Bribery Commission seeking an inquiry into on how Dr Shafi was re-employed after contesting elections. He had left the job to contest elections.