Sunday Times 2
A shortage of doctors?
View(s):What saddens me as I look around at the state of our country today is that vast numbers of professionals—doctors, engineers, IT people, administrators, etc.—have been leaving the country over the past year.
No doubt, fed up with the blatant mismanagement and clearly evident corruption practised by those politicians whom we elected to public office, these educated folk have voted with their feet. As things are in the country at present, they do not envisage things working out for many years to come. Having skills and training which employers overseas need, those with young families to feed and educate cannot really be blamed for leaving our shores.
Just four months ago, Health Services Director General Dr Asela Gunewardena told the media that more than seven hundred doctors left Sri Lanka last year. Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) spokesman Dr. Chamil Wijesinghe informed us that from January 1 to August 31 last year, about 500 doctors, including 125 medical specialists, had emigrated.
This is certainly a cause for concern—not just for people like me who are now in our eighties but for all the population of this country.
We cannot blame these Sri Lankans for seeking better opportunities elsewhere. They are simply doing what people have been doing for centuries. When the situation in their own country deteriorated (like the potato famine in Ireland and after the devastation of the Second World War in Europe) people migrated to try and better the situation for themselves and their families. One of the main reasons professionals are leaving now is Sri Lanka’s economic crisis. The solution then is to find solutions to this crisis.
Of course, an outsider who looks at our current cabinet will think that Sri Lanka has no cause to worry because we have so many doctors – Dr. Bandula Gunewardena, Dr. Susil Premjayantha, Dr. Keheliya Rambukwella, Dr. Wijedasa Rajapakshe, etc. There appear to be more doctors in Ranil Wickremesinghe’s cabinet than there would be in the consultants’ lounge at any of our teaching hospitals today!
A closer perusal of the academic qualifications of these ministers who call themselves ‘Doctor’ and want to be called ‘Doctor’ proves very interesting.
Apart from Dr. Ramesh Pathirana, a Peradeniya University medical graduate who has actually worked as a medical practitioner, the other “Doctors” in the cabinet have no medical training whatsoever.
Take our Health Minister, whose sole foray into higher education after he left S. Thomas’ College was to the Diploma Course at the Sri Lanka Hotel School (SLIHTM) followed by another diploma course, we are told, at the Tourism School in Klessheim in Salzburg. He now likes to be known as Dr Keheliya Rambukwella. Since he now functions (or malfunctions) as minister of Health, the “Doctor” title might make him appear to be more knowledgeable than he is. Unfortunately, his “doctorate” is in Defence Studies” – a postgraduate degree awarded to him by an organisation then known as the Islamic Open University (IOU) which now calls itself the International Open University (also going by the acronym IOU). This degree was conferred on him honoris causa – which “knowing people know” is a degree that is granted without examination.
Then consider our Highways on Minister—who well knows that calling himself “Doctor” in academic circles would make people take more notice of him than if he was just a tuition master of Advanced Level Commerce subjects.
Sumithra Arachchige Don Bandula Chandrasiri Gunawardena (perhaps better referred to by his initials ‘SAD Bandula’) entered Sri Jayawardenapura University based on his A Level Commerce results to read for a degree in management. His degree of Doctor of Philosophy is said to be from the Beijing Foreign Studies University, an institute which is located in the Haidian District of Beijing. Whether he actually lived and studied as a postgraduate student in Beijing or whether he did an online course or whether (like his colleague Keheliya) his was a degree conferred honoris causa is not really known. His convenient PhD allows him to call himself “Doctor.”
Another “Doctor” from a lesser-known university is Dr Don Susil Premajayantha. A graduate of Colombo University with a Master’s in Public Administration from Sri Jayawardenapura, his “Doctorate in Public Administration” is from a lesser-known university, known as Horizons University in Paris. This institution is currently ranked 508th out of all universities in France. It is a university that claims to have a “100% acceptance rate” —in other words, anybody who applies and pays their fees gets in! There is no need for proof of academic competence (unlike our students here who have to sit for competitive exams like the A/Levels to gain admission to university).
Nelson Mandela received many honorary doctorates—from the universities of Oxford, Stellenbosch, Sao Paolo and Nigeria. Bill Clinton received honorary doctorates from prestigious universities such as Edinburgh, McGill, Oxford and Hong Kong. But these gentlemen (just as good wine needs no bush) never called themselves Dr. Mandela or Dr Clinton. Unlike our less able ministers, they did not need to add “Doctor” in front of their names to enhance their status.
We are indeed a sad nation. We suffered a president and cabinet ministers who were responsible for bringing this country to its economic knees. Many of these ministers are still in office, with none having yet been held accountable for the bleeding of the nation’s coffers under the Rajapaksas.
Today our medically qualified professionals are leaving our shores—while we have a bunch of non-medically qualified ‘Doctors’ with questionable qualifications running the country.
No wonder, young professionals are leaving our land in droves.