• Accusations levelled of non-attachment to Col. NHSL, not reducing workload, maintaining excessive cadre in certain hospitals  
• Embilipitiya Hospital faces issues as temporarily assigned doc has to cover H’tota also 
• Min. warns of strict action against AWOL medics/health professionals 

With the latest migration of Dr. Udayanthi Nanayakkara, who was serving at the District General Hospital in Embilipitiya, the country has lost another of the very few neuro-anaesthetists left, allegedly due to deficiencies in the Health Ministry's process of assigning medical professionals to hospitals.

The said anaesthetist had not reported for work since 1 September, and it had later been revealed that she had migrated, and submitted a letter of resignation through her parents. Sources within the Ministry told The Daily Morning that Dr. Nanayakkara had completed her foreign training at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London, England, and returned to the country early this year (2023). She had then been attached to the Embilipitiya Hospital. It is said that she had had to perform the duties of three anaesthetists as two anaesthetists of the Hospital had migrated in October last year, and April this year, respectively.

Due to her migration, the performance of all types of surgeries in the said hospital had come to a standstill, while some of them had later resumed with the temporary attachment of the anaesthetist at the Base Hospital in Tangalle to the Embilipitiya Hospital. However, sources within the Embilipitiya Hospital told The Daily Morning that a problematic situation would again arise as the anaesthetist at the Tangalle Hospital has to work at the District General Hospital in Hambantota as well.

Against this backdrop, a Ministry official said that Dr. Nanayakkara's migration could have been prevented had she been attached to the National Hospital of Sri Lanka (NHSL) in Colombo, where there are several vacancies for neuro-anaesthetists. 

“The cadre of neuro-anaesthetists at the NHSL is six. With the retirement of one, the planned retirement of another, and the migration of two others, there will be only two neuro-anaesthetists there in the coming days. Since Dr. Nanayakkara is specialised in neuro-anaesthesia, she should have been appointed to the NHSL. Had it been done, she would not have left the country.”

The Daily Morning also learned that there had been another possibility to retain Dr. Nanayakkara in the country by reducing her workload through the attachment of another anaesthetist to the Embilipitiya Hospital. Sources said that an anaesthetist who had earlier left the country for the United Kingdom without any proper notice, and had returned to Sri Lanka in April 2023, had been attached to the Colombo North Teaching Hospital in Ragama. She had first been attached to work at the Base Hospital in Kamburupitiya twice a week, and then been attached to the Ragama Hospital permanently. It is learnt that the Ragama Hospital is currently having the required cadre of six anaesthetists, and that with the said anaesthetist's appointment, there is an excess number of anaesthetists. Had this anaesthetist been appointed to the Embilipitiya Hospital, there was a possibility that Dr. Nanayakkara would not have left the country as her workload could have been reduced.

Meanwhile, the Acting Deputy Director General of Health Services, Dr. G. Wijesuriya, addressing a media briefing in Colombo yesterday (6), warned of strict action against medical officers and other health professionals who are absent from work without prior notice.