Why discriminate Jaffna medical students: Union

By Isuri Kaviratne

A proposal to send students, who pass out from the Jaffna University Medical Faculty, to hospitals in Jaffna for their internship has been forwarded to the Cabinet, Health Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva said.“The Cabinet is due to discuss this matter at its next meeting. We came to this decision due to requests made at the Parliament Consultative Committee, especially by TNA MPs,” the Minister said.

He said appointing students to hospitals for their internship was due to take place on Monday but it has now been postponed for a month to give time for the suggested changes. The Minister said most of the other students were not prepared to work in hospitals in the North and East. They either go abroad or resign and therefore it would be more practical to appoint students from the Jaffna University to work in the North and the East.

“After the year’s internship, they are free to request for transfers as the interns from the next batch will be filling the vacancies in those hospitals,” the Health Minister said. Dr. Kremlin Wickramasinghe, representing the 2000/2001 batch of medical graduates due to receive their internship appointments on Monday said this is a violation of the fundamental rights of the Jaffna University students.

“The Jaffna University graduates will go to courts if this proposal is approved by the Cabinet because in such an instance the graduates will not be eligible to work in hospitals of their choice even though eligible to do so but will make it mandatory for them to work in the North and East disregarding their position in the merit list.