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Honouring Sri Lanka's unrivalled medical writer Prof. Colvin Goonaratna

11 Aug 2022

BY Dr. Anuruddha M. Abeygunasekera For more than 25 years, I have had the privilege and pleasure of enjoying a close friendship with Prof. Colvin Goonaratna, a great medical teacher, skilled and inventive researcher, practical and efficient manager, and Sri Lanka’s unrivalled medical editor and writer. I count our friendship, which commenced from my interest in clinical research and writing, as one of the blessings of my life. We rejoice that he is still bristling with ideas for research and writing even as he is about to celebrate his 85th birthday on 1 September 2022.   Goonaratna is a prolific medical writer, and his articles have been published in many leading Journals such as the British Medical Journal (including one editorial), Clinical Science and Molecular Biology, Medical History, Journal of Evidence-Based Medicine, Indian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology, and Ceylon Medical Journal. He has authored, with co-authors, five books: Physiology and Biochemistry in Clinical Medicine, Gastroenterology Update, Sri Lanka Patients’ Formulary, and Medicine in the Elderly (Volumes One and TwoI, along with leading consultants, both local and foreign.   The jewel in the crown of his publications is A Doctor’s Quest for Justice – Professor Priyani Soysa vs. Rienzie Arsecularatne, which has become a frequently consulted reference on medical negligence among the legal and medical fraternities of Sri Lanka. It has been written with objectivity, accuracy, and comprehensively, with mastery of legal matters, and fearless criticism. The book is critical of several aspects of the Sri Lankan Judiciary and some of its personalities.  Publishers were reluctant at first to accept it for publication due to companies being legally advised regarding possible actions for libel and contempt of court. However, when his book was endorsed by the Chief Justice of Sri Lanka at the time (Sarath Nanda Silva PC), who wrote a foreword to it, one famous publisher quickly agreed to publish it. Subsequently, Goonaratna was invited by the editors of the prestigious law journal, Law College Law Review, to write an article titled “Medical Negligence: Where are we going?”. It was published in 2005 and encompasses virtually all aspects of medical negligence including matters pertaining to patients, doctors, lawyers and the Sri Lankan judicial system.     The book, Medicine in the Elderly, in two volumes with chapters authored by specialists in the appropriate fields, was another arduous project, and the book was published at a time when geriatric medicine was rarely, if ever, heard of among decision-makers and health-planners of this country. The book was a wake-up call for all concerned, and geriatric medicine was accepted as a specialty by the Ministry of Health, and the training of postgraduates in the subject was commenced by the Postgraduate Institute of Medicine (PGIM) after his book was published.  He also served patients immensely by contributing a weekly one-page article to two national newspapers (Divaina, and later Lankadeepa), comprising replies to patients and their relatives’ health-related queries. This has now continued for 25 years without interruption – a rare achievement. His insight and perception of the role of health education for everyone, in the context of the total healthcare problems of a developing country, is an asset which is as rare as it is valuable.   In 1982, he was selected by the higher-ups in the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) to be the Honourary Consultant Physician to the party’s Presidential Candidate Hector Kobbekaduwa. In the candidate’s car, Goonaratna toured the island, attending over 200 raucous and unruly election meetings. The SLFP’s candidate lost the election.  As a result of subsequent developments in the political arena and false allegations of a Naxalite type of conspiracy (a group of far-Left radical communists, supportive of Maoist political sentiment and ideology), Goonaratna was mandated to attend long interrogation sessions on the fourth floor of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on several days a week, over many months.  Due to the terrible strain this inflicted on his family, he left for India, using a brand-new passport, to relieve his family’s emotional trauma. After three tense and impecunious months in India, he took up a job as an Associate Professor at the King Khalid University Hospital Medical School, Saudi Arabia, that was arranged for him by his friend and senior colleague, Prof. Carlo Fonseka. He returned to Sri Lanka in 1984 to accept the post of Professor of Physiology at the University of Ruhuna.  For someone with a devotion to several academic responsibilities that demand sustained intellectual energy and the expenditure of a great deal of time, Goonaratna has been remarkably versatile. In 1994, Goonaratna was appointed as the Chairman of the State Pharmaceuticals Corporation (SPC). Goonaratna displayed his skills as an efficient manager, administrator, and a reasonable task-master during his tenure. During his eight years as the SPC Chairman, he converted the loss-making SPC into a profit-making corporation, increased the number of Osu Sala pharmacies and Franchise Osu Sala outlets, and ensured that drug shortages were extremely rare. He made the SPC a model State enterprise.  Although he was a little tough on discipline, his honesty, efficiency, and transparency ensured that there were no trade union actions by the staff of the SPC during his tenure. In 1997, a trade union of medical doctors carried out a vociferous and vituperative campaign, stating that Goonaratna was in conflict of interest regarding the award by the SPC of a tender for the triple vaccine (diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis). A Presidential Commission exonerated him of all allegations and charges.   In addition to the above posts, Goonaratna held many other important posts at various times and served the medical community and the country with honour and dignity. In 1988, he was elected President of the Galle Medical Association. He was elected President of the Sri Lanka Medical Association (SLMA) in 1996, and was also elected President of the Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Sciences (SLAAS) in 2003, which is the apex body in Sri Lanka for all scientists. With the help of  two like-minded colleagues, Goonaratna organised  highly popular SLAAS Science Day Programmes in schools in many distant places of Sri Lanka over a period of 10 years to promote science education among rural school children, because they believed that that would be the best way to improve and upgrade the socio-economic status of the future society of the country.  In appreciation of this work, he received the Visva Prasadini National Award from the Prime Minister. He was a member of the Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC) from 2011-2016, and became its President from October 2017, to July 2018.  In addition to his MBBS, MRCP, and PhD degrees, he has won several fellowship awards: The Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians of London, the Fellowship of the National Academy of Sciences of Sri Lanka, the Fellowships (Honoris Causa) of the College of Surgeons of Sri Lanka and the College of General Practitioners of Sri Lanka, and the Doctor of Science award from the University of Colombo.    He had assignments on several occasions as the advisor for national and foreign World Health Organisation (WHO) programmes, and undertook an assignment by the World Bank for a 12-month stint to produce a thesis on the Sri Lankan statutes on health-related matters. Goonaratna was then-President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga’s nominee for the Constitutional Council of Sri Lanka (2003-2005). Goonaratna was appointed by then-President Mahinda Rajapaksa as the Chancellor of the Open University of Sri Lanka in 2016, for a period of five years. He had never lobbied for any of the above elected positions, or the awards by three separate Heads of State of Sri Lanka, or for his appointments to medical and scientific associations or academic positions in universities.  He has won many National Awards from Heads of State in appreciation of his services rendered to the nation and to the medical community. These include the Prime Minister’s award, Vishva Prasidini, in 1996, the President’s National Award Vidya Jyothi – the highest national award for science in Sri Lanka – in 2005, and the President’s National Award of Deshamanya in 2016, which is the highest national lifetime award for services to the nation. In all probability, Goonaratna is the only Sri Lankan who has won these national awards from three Heads of State.  An important quality that I learnt from him was his skill in performing and managing several projects at any given time with equal skill and proficiency, and achieving perfect outcomes. A good example is that during a space of two years (2003 and 2004), he was the President of the SLAAS, the Professor and Head of a Department of Physiology, the Editor of the CMJ, the Senior Editor of the SLP and the sole author of a major publication, A Doctor’s Quest for Justice. Goonaratna has never displayed bias whatsoever on gender, ethnicity, or religious issues during his life. He ensured that all groups were represented fairly in the Editorial Board of the CMJ. His report and his recommendations, as the Chairman of the team that visited the internally displaced persons’ camps in Cheddikulam, at the request of the Health Ministry after the war had ended, is a clear message about upholding the principles of equity and compassion even at times of powerful ethnic and social calamities. Only a few of you will be aware that, in his second year at the Royal College, at the age of 14 years, Goonaratna completely lost the vision of one eye, resulting from an accidental injury sustained during a game of hockey. So he is a living testimony that vision from one eye is not a barrier to achieve professional and academic excellence. (The writer is a Urological Surgeon attached to the Colombo South Teaching Hospital, Kalubowila, and the Emeritus Editor of the CMJ, and may be contacted via amabey@sltnet.lk)  


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