Sri Lanka, still recovering from the devastation of December’s tsunami, has accused Britain of undermining its already embattled health service by failing to prevent hospitals luring away trained doctors and nurses to work in the UK.

According to its minister of health, Nimal Siripala Da Silva, the offer of big money, better facilities and prestige training establishments in Britain is too much for many Sri Lankan doctors to resist - and is causing ‘a grave problem’ for the south Asian nation’s health service.

The claim was last nigh strongly denied by the Department of Health which said that it had a moratorium on recruitment from Sri Lanka and was working to close a loophole that allowed some doctors to work in Britain.

There are only around 800 specialists in Sri Lanka to serve a population of 18 million people. Each year around 60 doctors head to the UK, Australia and other nations in the developing world to complete their year’s compulsory training to become a consultant. However, only half return, exacerbating a growing crisis in health provision.

According to Dr Chana Perera, of the government medical officer’s association, the problem is exacerbated by the expense of training a specialist in Sri Lanka. ‘It costs the government a huge amount to put these young men and women through their education as doctors and when they are overseas they receive a scholarship. If they are in London, they get `A3800 a month. It may not be a lot there but it is a very significant sum here,’ Perera said.

The government has taken steps to stem the flow, demanding that all doctors leaving the country post a bond that will be forfeited if they do not return. However, once earning western salaries, expatriate doctors have no difficulty paying the bond off. In Sri Lanka a junior doctor earns less than 15,000 rupees (`A380) a month and the most senior consultants earn `A3180 to `A3200 a month.

The problem is most acute in smaller hospitals. Dr Hector Weerasinghe, director of the National Hospital of Sri Lanka in Colombo, said that though his hospital was fully staffed the problem was acute at the periphery. At the Mohamodra maternity hospital in Galle, the director, Dr Priyani Senadra, said there was a general problem with a lack of specialists. ‘We have no shortage of junior doctors but when the specialists go for training overseas they stay on.’

Perera said that Western governments should send his country’s doctors home: ‘The people of Britain are getting a good Sri Lankan doctor for virtually nothing. The people of Sri Lanka lose out.’

In the aftermath of the recent tsunami Sri Lanka’s president, Chandrika Bandaranaika Kumaratunga, made a specific appeal for doctors working overseas to return home and help with relief efforts.

A spokesman for the Department of Health denied that Britain was poaching doctors. ‘The NHS is at the forefront of ethical recruitment. There are country-to-country agreements about where and if we can recruit surplus medical staff. There is nothing we can do if a doctor comes to the UK and seeks employment.’

However, not everyone is attracted by the large sums on offer in Britain. In Galle’s main hospital, patients lay sweating under ceiling fans in crowded wards. A young doctor struggled to cope. He did not want to go to the UK - and did not want to be named. ‘I don’t want to travel anywhere. My work is here for the moment,’ he said.