Chest pain over clinic settled
GMOA protests over move to Welisara
By Faraza Farook
The controversial decision to shift the Colombo
Chest Clinic to Welisara has been deferred after strong protest by doctors,
Government Medical Officers' Association, President, Dr. Ananda Samarasekara
said.
He said people could face lots of hardships if they had to travel to
Welisara only to get X-rays and then again to get the report.
About 200 medical examinations are done for employment reasons and more
than 1/3rd of the total number of tuberculosis (TB) cases and nearly 150
patients with respiratory ailments are treated at Deans road chest clinic
daily, he said.
The Health Ministry had wanted to move the Colombo clinic to Welisara
because it wanted a building for the officers of the 10 new directors appointed
by the Minister, but GMOA felt the welfare of the public should come first,
he said.
The ministry in turn has accused the GMOA of objecting to the shift
because it would be inconvenient for the doctors to travel to Welisara.
But Dr. Samarasekera said six of the doctors working at the chest clinic
lived close to Welisara and it was not the reason for the protest.
The GMOA said that with Colombo district having an increasing number
of patients with chest infections mainly due to pollution it was absurd
to deny the people of the Colombo district of the only chest clinic they
had.
Earlier the ministry had proposed a compromise to move the chest clinic
to the new building of the Medical Research Unit in Colombo. But the MRI
building is not yet ready and so the chest clinic will remain at Deans
Road.
No-ragging pledge from students
The Peradeniya University, often a hot bed of ragging,
has introduced tough measures based on anti-ragging laws passed recently.
The university has introduced an anti-ragging declaration to be signed
by all new students while the medical check which was earlier done during
internship has been advanced so that university officials will be well
aware of the students' health situation, Registrar Wimal Dissan-ayaka said.
The registration forms this year include a statement to be signed by
students pledging they would not indulge in or encourage any form of ragging.
The declarations states any violation would be considered an offence and
the university has full authority to take disciplinary action.
It also states that any ragging or participation in ragging could lead
to the student being expelled.
After two students died in ragging related deaths last year, the government
this year introduced tough legislation to prevent and deal with excessive
ragging.
Liberation takes place
Major General Sarath Munasinghe on Thursday briefed
journalists of Sunday newspapers about the current situation of the military
operations in the North.
He also released maps depicting areas currently under the LTTE control
and the progress the Security forces made since 1994.
From 171 square kilometres under government control in August 1994 the
security forces have to-date liberated some 5343 square kilometres which
had been under LTTE control, Military spokesman Sarath Munasinghe said.
Addressing a news conference after he was promoted as Major General,
he said the population in areas under government control had risen to 551,800
from 3000 in 1994.
"Now we are at the final stages of Operation Jaya Sikurui and we
have only to clear another 30 kilometres for the link up of the A-9– Jaffna-Kandy
highway, he said.
"Our main objective is to open up the Main Supply Route (MSR) to provide
regular supplies to civilians and forces in the North.
He claimed the LTTE would not be having more than 7000 cadres. "Though
the LTTE had counter-attacked six times Jaya Sikurui troops our brave soldiers
had fought back gallantly," he said.
Commenting on the high casualty rates in the forces he said they were
caused by the LTTEs 81 mm and 120 mm mortars.
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