The Government Medical Officers Association alleged that the Assistant and Registered Medical Practitioners had acquired their membership in the Sri Lanka Medical Council by tendering false information to it. The GMOA Assistant Secretary Dr. Uditha Hearth wowed that the Association would take action against them by filing complaints against them.

He said that the ARMPs who followed the six months Medical Diploma in St. Petersburg had tendered false information to the Sri Lanka Medical Council. The Health Ministry gave them three years paid leave to follow a full time medical course in St. Petersburg. However, a majority of them have only been there for six months while others have not even been there for three months, he said. They have also not given the SLMC correct information regarding the local training they received, the Assistant Secretary said.

He said the GMOA had received legal advice and that it would lodge complaints against the ARMPs of giving false information to the SLMC with the hope of receiving their registration.

The complaints will be lodged according to section 21 of the medical ordnance which states that membership would be cancelled should false information be tendered to SLMC.

At the rate things are going anybody can start a private medical college in Sri Lanka and give degrees within eight months, one year or even at a lesser time frame. Who’s to stop them," Herath demanded pointing out that it was the GMOA’s duty as qualified M.B.B.S. doctors to put a stop to falsehoods and save the country from a bigger calamity than the recent tsunami.

Herath brushed aside possibilities of the SLMC not taking note of the complaints made by the GMOA owing to the strained relationship between the two main medical bodies.

We can lodge complaints— anybody can if they feel that the so called medical officer has tendered false information. It’s up to the SLMC to do the rest, he said.

The President of the Society for Registered and Assistant Medical Officers (SRAMO), Dr. Thilina Gunawardane when contacted sniggered that at the rate that things were going it looks as though the GMOA wanted to dictate terms not only to the SLMC, the Health Minister, the SRAMOs but also to the St. Petersburg Academy.

We have done all things legally, he stressed pointing out that they had followed the course two years in Sri Lanka under the guidance of the professors from the St. Petersburg Academy. The ARMPs were also given the proper training required.