Certain hospitals were closed due to lack of doctors willing to serve in those hospitals. But people in those areas were at receiving end, As a responsible government, we cannot act as onlookers. GMOA cannot dictate terms to the Government. With the new appointments, the ministry will be re-opening 40 hospitals, which have been closed due to lack of qualified medical personnel, Dr. Senaratne said.
However, the doctors’ appointments which have stirred much controversy will come to effect from next week, as planned, the minister said. GMOA is against these appointments.
According to the minister although the GMOA is now protesting against the appointments, the union secretary has already accepted and signed each paper of the appointment list.
“We will provide the evidence for this as well,” he added.
They threaten to strike. The battle lines have been drawn between the Health Minister and the Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) yesterday(29) as Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne refused to be deterred by ‘threats to strike’ and calls for his removal.
“The GMOA cannot decide my appointment, but I can decide their appointments,” Furious Minister Senaratne said. He further said that as an elected representative of the people, it would be the President of the country and the people to decide on his appointments, not Trade Unions.
“The GMOA is involved in politics not in trade union activities,” he charged calling the organisation a bankrupt entity as its members were starting to abandon the union.
He called out to the GMOA not to hold innocent patients to ransom to achieve their political gains.
The minister said the GMOA was not only targeting him but also his family members and some upright officials of the Health Ministry.
Responding to criticism against Health Services Director Dr. Priyantha Atapattu, the minister said that he has performed his duties to the letter.
Dr. Senaratne stressed that he had never interfered in the doctors’ appointments and added that the GMOA threats will not deter him or his officials at the Health Ministry in carrying out duty with transparency and impartiality.
