Sri Lanka Tsunami — Drifting Away

Sri Lankan government says it is has sufficient local health personnel to deal with the mental wounds of last Sunday's deadly tsunami, a top official said.







Sri Lankan government says it is has sufficient local health personnel to deal with the mental wounds of last Sunday's deadly tsunami, a top official said. Dr. Athula Sumathipala, a senior member of the government's Centre for National Operations said that foreign experts were not quite suited for the occasion as they lacked the local knowledge and the cultural values to deal with the present crisis.

"We are getting reports that various foreign doctors are coming here, but I have told the government to be careful of what they do because I don't think Sri Lanka should be a testing bed for these doctors because they don’t have the local knowledge," Sumathipala told a news conference on Tuesday.

Besides about 28 specialists, there are over 200 doctors passing out this year with psychiatric knowledge and over 200 medical officers' islandwide, who are currently capable of dealing with the crisis, says Sumathipala, who is also a member of the UK-Sri Lanka Trauma Group.

He says general practioners,