June 27, 2017 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) said Monday that they were not accepting President Maithripala Sirisena’s statement on SAITM and will continue their strike action.
After discussions with the GMOA the president’s office issued a statement that the South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine (SAITM) was instructed to discontinue enrolling new students pending a government gazette notice with standards to be adopted for private medical education.
The newly-appointed Secretary of the GMOA Haritha Aluthge said that this was in no way agreeable and that they do not want the legalization of SAITM in any form, and they would only accept the nationalizing of the institution.
In an earlier statement from the Presidents office it was stated that the Government would gazette the minimum standard of medical education.
“The Government had decided to continue the institute as a joint venture of the State and private sector in the future,” the statement said.
“The courses followed by the SAITM students would be rearranged in a manner that they would be in line with a procedure accepted by the Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC) and will adopt a mechanism to register those who already graduated at SAITM, with the SLMC.”
It also said the Government will seek the Attorney General’s advice to inform the Government’s stance on the SAITM to the Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, the Joint Postal Trade Union said it will be going on an island wide strike starting from Monday midnight.
The union said the strike is to protest plans to convert the postal offices in Nuwara Eliya, Kandy, and Galle into luxury hotels.