• Keheliya bemoans 3,000 foreign medical grads not being permitted to sit Act 16 Exam

The Health Ministry has no plan to recruit foreign doctors in order to overcome the prevailing shortage of doctors and specialists, said Health Minister Keheliya Rambukwella.

Speaking in the Parliament yesterday (4), in response to a series of questions raised by Opposition Parliamentarians, he said that no such decision has been made so far and that the Government is seeking to fill the existing vacancies in Government hospitals using the resources within the country.

Rambukwella made these remarks when the Opposition and Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) Leader Sajith Premadasa queried him on whether the Government had planned to bring down foreign doctors in order to combat the prevailing shortage of medical professionals. The Minister further said that only two options are available to address the shortage of medical professionals, that is either to increase medical faculties or allow private medical faculties to operate in Sri Lanka.

He claimed that about 3,000 medical students who are qualified from foreign countries are not allowed to sit for the Act 16 examination in Sri Lanka and added that therefore, the said examination to Register and Practice Medicine in Sri Lanka should be amended to allow at least students who are qualified from the first 1,000 recognised medical faculties in the world.

Responding to Rambukwella, Chief Opposition Whip and SJB MP, attorney Lakshman Kiriella said that it is hilarious that the same group of persons, who obstructed the establishment of the South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine (SAITM) Medical Faculty, is now attempting to start private medical faculties. He added that the SAITM was abolished even when the Supreme Court had ruled that there is no issue with its standards.