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GMOA strike extends to Wednesday, demands unmet despite Parliament debate
View(s):- Union says trade union action meant to highlight salary issues, critical drug shortages in state hospitals, infrastructure woes
By Sajeniya Sathanandan
Tens of thousands of patients at state hospitals continue to be affected by the trade union action resorted to by the Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA), that is to continue until Wednesday.
The GMOA said they had not received a clear response to their demands, despite the Health Ministry votes being debated in Parliament yesterday.
GMOA Assistant Secretary Dr Chamil Wijesinghe said doctors have withdrawan from writing prescriptions for patients to obtain drugs, tests, or equipment from private sector pharmacies or laboratories.
National Hospital Colombo: Patients suffer as doctors strike continues. Pix by Indika Handuwala and Akila Jayawardena
The impact of the GMOA action is felt most severely by patients at the peripheral hospitals where the medicine shortage is more acute.
Dr. Chamil Wijesinghe
The Base Hospital in Mahiyanganaya, Vavuniya’s District General Hospital and Nuwara Eliya Teaching Hospitals are some of the hospitals that face shortages including that of essential drugs like insulin, forcing patients to buy them from outside.
Medical sources said when a specific required medication is unavailable, doctors prescribe alternative medicines. This includes using broad-spectrum drugs, such as Clindamycin, when the required specific medicine is not available.
Even life-saving drugs needed for acute emergencies such as treating anaphylactic shock following an insect sting are not available in some hospitals.
The sources said doctors are compelled to prescribe life- saving medications from the private sector.
In some hospitals Dental doctors do not have the basic facilities of dental X-rays.
The combination of shortages and delays mean doctors often face the dilemma whether the patient will survive by the time they manage to find the necessary resources or arrange a transfer. Critically ill patients are sometimes hard to transfer due to a lack of beds at referral hospitals or non-functional essential equipment like oxygen during transport, the sources added..
Sources from peripheral hospitals said they provide the drugs they have on hand but are unsure about the quality.
The Sunday Timeslearned from patients at the National Hospital Colombo that they are requested to get medicines from outside the hospital due to shortages.
Chithra Subramnaian
Chithra Subramnaian said she is a heart patient and she was asked to buy one of her drugs from outside and it is an expensive drug.
J.W.A. Karunawathi said she had to travel from Kataragama to get her medication from the National Hospital, Colombo as the drugs were not available in her area.
She said she had to rent a place in Colombo to obtain treatment.
The GMOA while demanding that the government address critical issues faced by the doctors has also have called on the government to resolve issues faced by patients in peripheral and other hospitals.
The association emphasised the shortage of health professionals which directly resulted in overcrowding of essential service areas, wards, clinics, and outpatient departments (OPDs).
They are also demanding solutions to financial issues of doctors and the provision of car permits, which are necessary for emergency travel in areas lacking proper transport or safe roads.
J.W.A. Karunawathi
Furthermore, they highlight urgent infrastructural issues such as upgrading of sanitation, specifically unhygienic washrooms, and on-call rooms and doctors’ quarters.
Among the other demands were proper security systems to mitigate the safety risks faced by professionals, especially for those working on night shifts in rural areas.
A GMOA source said they had met President Anura Kumara Dissanayake and Health Minister Dr Nalinda Jayatissa and that their demands have been acknowledged and the President had spoken about the economic crisis but a proper time frame had not been given to solve the issues they face. “That’s the reason to continue the trade union action,” the source said.
The Union emphasised that the government must take the responsibility and provide the essential drugs. Although doctors previously wrote external prescriptions taking a legal risk it was done reluctantly to save patients’ lives when items were unavailable in the hospital.
Other trade union actions by doctors include withdrawing from working in new wards, units, or hospitals that are opened without sufficient numbers of doctors or necessary basic facilities.
They will not participate in medical camps or health camps conducted as a part of political propaganda or election campaigns; services will be withdrawn in areas where basic declared criteria for patient safety and privacy such as having a chaperone or supportive person, as mandated by the Health Ministry and Sri Lanka Medical Council will not be met are also among the trade union actions been taken.
Doctors have raised concerns about the lack of beds in wards that have only 40 beds, but admissions cannot be stopped when patients are ill. This leads to more than 100 patients being managed with patients lying under beds or corridors. These patients are attended to by under staffed professionals who are forced to cover additional working hours affecting their health too.
GMOA Secretary Dr Prabath Sugathadasa said doctors sometimes need to attend to 100 patients forcing them to spare only few minutes for a patient which is unfair.
He said currently doctors receive a Disturbance, Availability, and Transport Allowance of Rs 70,000 when they are supposed to receive Rs 260,000. As an initial step they have requested the government to raise it to at least Rs 120,000.
During yesterday’s Parliamentary debate Opposition members also brought up the issue of shortages of medicines and facilities in state hospitals.
However, Health Minister Dr Nalinda Jayatissa and Deputy Health Minister Dr Hansaka Wijemuni denied allegations of shortage of medicines and said some of the issues were caused by administrative issues.
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