Sri Lankan scheme to help fight medical brain drain

This is a very hot topic,I have seen some of our members put their ideas without knowing the depth of the situation.All post relly on the salary of a consultant,who has 11 years medical trainning. Please pay your attention to the below facts,

For MEDICAL OFFICER who has completed more than 5years trainning,
Basic -26500 LKR
OT per hour-210 LKR
Max no of hours per month 120
Max no of hours per day 4
A night oncall starts from 4.00pm-8.00am ====16hours
[ONLY ALLOW TO CLAIM FOR 4 HOURS PER DAY]



Don't think that doctors are doing a bussiness with patients,Don't under estimate doctors patiance as a timid thing,if all Drs resign from the government and do private practise they could earn above penny salary within 4 days [without on call nights]

For PMC issue,
PMC is not a bad thing,but there should be qualification requirments,supervision by gov.medical faculties etc... PMC should not like pastry shops where you can buy MEDICAL DEGREE as hot hot pastry!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


SO PLEASE THINK TWICE BEFORE POSTING THINGS

watch dog wrote:
This is a very hot topic,I have seen some of our members put their ideas without knowing the depth of the situation.All post relly on the salary of a consultant,who has 11 years medical trainning. Please pay your attention to the below facts,

For MEDICAL OFFICER who has completed more than 5years trainning,
Basic -26500 LKR
OT per hour-210 LKR
Max no of hours per month 120
Max no of hours per day 4
A night oncall starts from 4.00pm-8.00am ====16hours
[ONLY ALLOW TO CLAIM FOR 4 HOURS PER DAY]



Don't think that doctors are doing a bussiness with patients,Don't under estimate doctors patiance as a timid thing,if all Drs resign from the government and do private practise they could earn above penny salary within 4 days [without on call nights]

For PMC issue,
PMC is not a bad thing,but there should be qualification requirments,supervision by gov.medical faculties etc... PMC should not like pastry shops where you can buy MEDICAL DEGREE as hot hot pastry!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


SO PLEASE THINK TWICE BEFORE POSTING THINGS

It s pathetic to see the way the government treating the processionals even after winning the war.We need more and more professionals in Sri lanka now if we are to build up this country.

Sadly Sri Lankan politicians don't see any thing beyond the next election or next budget. we saw the Higher education minister SB and the government's response towards the university lectures who demanded for a very reasonable salary hike. SB called them as dogs,Fox etc.

Now we don't see any qualified Engineers,Accountants,Architects join the government sector.The biggest problem happen when the university lectors and the doctors start to leave the government sector. The whole system will collapse in a short period of time.

Academic wrote:

As far as quality is controlled no matter who offers the degree, either private or public. I believe in free system. If any of us have money and capability there should be opportunities to take any degree (including medical). What can we achieve through blocking others?

It's always good to have private sector participation in education including medical education.I think we are a bit late in initiating it when compared progress of privatization of other sectors.

Quality of education would be of utmost value who ever it is given, state or private sector, and quality is especially important with regard to heath care including training of doctors,nurses etc. Because if quality is compromised in this sector you will not be alive to talk about it and criticize it. I think recent Private sector Medical college at Malabe opened even without a hospital. How can doctors be trained without patients?

After the open economy policy initiated in 1977 we saw private sector growth in many sectors.Some developments are really appreciable and some are horrible.

One example for good development is private banks. Those days people have to spend their entire day in state sector banks, and with emergence of private sector banks, story has changed completely,

One horrible example is Private buses and every one knows how horrible is it.

By seeing at developing condition, We can see the ongoing private medical college move towards the horrible category like the private buses, which will end up with catastrophic result.

However it's good to see the development of some quality private sector education institutes in the field of IT, Commerce,Accountancy etc
Eg: ,APIIT,IIT SLIIT(State but paid institute)etc.

this is the wonder of asia!!!!!!!!!!!!

Please pay on attention on these factors.

Doctors prescribe medicine with commercial name instead of generic names(Bcoz they get a higher commission from those companies-It is said to over Rs 20 Bn for a year )
If we take qualification .How this district basis work.A pupil who has got heighest mark in an area like Monaragala (Lowest cut off mark for Medicine) will be equivalent to a colombo pupil who is in 350 of its rank in colombo district.
When I consult a doctor at a leading hospital which gives a foreign medical professional support , I had a chance to speak to her .Her qualification is lesser than of most of doctors Here.But we are paying more on them.No one questions that.(India produces a large number of doctors and send them around the world ....But We.......)
we spent over Rs 30 Bn for foreign education.No one talks about that.

If doctors are found with guilty with their profession they wont loose their jobs here (If they kill 100 patients )But other jobs here ...and other countries .
They earn more than 10-15 times of their basic salary from private practice.

we do have one doctor for 1300 patients where as the normal average should be 300.
Can we talk to doctor ask like .....why did u write commercial name of a medicine instead of generic name, do we get side effects on this medicine etc......NEXT DAY THEY WILL GO ON STRIKES PUTTING INNOCENT PATIENTS AT RISK ,....BUT THEY WILL DO PRIVATE PRACTICE DURING THE SAME PERIOD........

soileconomy wrote:Please pay on attention on these factors.

Doctors prescribe medicine with commercial name instead of generic names(Bcoz they get a higher commission from those companies-It is said to over Rs 20 Bn for a year )
If we take qualification .How this district basis work.A pupil who has got heighest mark in an area like Monaragala (Lowest cut off mark for Medicine) will be equivalent to a colombo pupil who is in 350 of its rank in colombo district.
When I consult a doctor at a leading hospital which gives a foreign medical professional support , I had a chance to speak to her .Her qualification is lesser than of most of doctors Here.But we are paying more on them.No one questions that.(India produces a large number of doctors and send them around the world ....But We.......)
we spent over Rs 30 Bn for foreign education.No one talks about that.

If doctors are found with guilty with their profession they wont loose their jobs here (If they kill 100 patients )But other jobs here ...and other countries .
They earn more than 10-15 times of their basic salary from private practice.

we do have one doctor for 1300 patients where as the normal average should be 300.
Can we talk to doctor ask like .....why did u write commercial name of a medicine instead of generic name, do we get side effects on this medicine etc......NEXT DAY THEY WILL GO ON STRIKES PUTTING INNOCENT PATIENTS AT RISK ,....BUT THEY WILL DO PRIVATE PRACTICE DURING THE SAME PERIOD........

Dear soileconomy..

There is lot of issues in the health care sector.

1. National health policy – there is no proper policy - just one A4 paged document
http://www.health.gov.lk/HealthPolicy.htm

2. There is no proper drug policy -

Develop and implement a National Drug Policy for the rational use and distribution of drugs.

This is what the National health policy is saying about the drug policy. Although there is a draft version it is not approved by the cabinet. http://www.who.int/medicines/areas/policy/NMDP_SriLanka.pdf

If there is a proper drug policy lot of malpractices can be minimised

Promotion of generic drugs rather than brand names for eg. Incentive can be given for generic prescriptions.

Can ensure quality drugs by limiting number of brands per generic (currently there is 50 odd branded versions of drugs available for generic paracetamol. For other drugs also the scenario is same. This warrant huge investment for post marketing surveillance, where ministry of health cannot afford it) and limit entering counterfeit drugs to market.

Etc...

3.How many pharmacies are there without a registered pharmacist?

4.How many people are treating patients without qualifications? (Without SLMC registration)

5. If you see the annual health bulletin, the latest one we have is 2007 (http://www.health.gov.lk/AnnualHealthBulletin.htm). Now we are heading to 2012. So there is lack of information (out dated information)

4. All the doctors working in the government sector are allowed to work in the private sector after duty hours (if they wish). Usually this is not allowed in other countries. But government is not interested in implementing proper GP system... why... Simply they cannot increase salary so they allowed working in both sectors. Do the public need that sort of system?? Will the quality of service can be increased by that sort of system..?? (Yes). Will it promote development of Medical field? (Yes), will it reduce health care delivery cost??

6. Most of the rural areas are underserved.
7 etc
8 etc
........
 

Regarding PMC at Malabe

There is no issue if we can maintain quality and standards to deliver quality output when establishing private medical faculty or any other faculty. And it should not destroy the National University system.

Other thing is cant we restructure the national university system to attract foreign students. If you consider Malabe faculty.. They need to pay for the Russian university so it save little amount of foreign exchange.

Issue here is it is difficult to believe what Higher education minister is saying.
He is Threatening every one earlier he threat to dissolve the Sri Lanka Medical Council (which is the governing body) if they not approved the Malabe Medical faculty.

http://english.readsrilanka.com/2011/09/12/s-b-threatnes-to-dissolve-the-medical-council/
http://www.lankatruth.com/index.php/news/local-news/9855-medical-council-will-be-dissolved-if-not-abided-by-the-government-

Latest one is he is threatening the Medical officers association..

I dont think the Government is doing exactly the right thing...

soileconomy wrote:Please pay on attention on these factors.

Doctors prescribe medicine with commercial name instead of generic names(Bcoz they get a higher commission from those companies-It is said to over Rs 20 Bn for a year )
If we take qualification .How this district basis work.A pupil who has got heighest mark in an area like Monaragala (Lowest cut off mark for Medicine) will be equivalent to a colombo pupil who is in 350 of its rank in colombo district.
When I consult a doctor at a leading hospital which gives a foreign medical professional support , I had a chance to speak to her .Her qualification is lesser than of most of doctors Here.But we are paying more on them.No one questions that.(India produces a large number of doctors and send them around the world ....But We.......)
we spent over Rs 30 Bn for foreign education.No one talks about that.

If doctors are found with guilty with their profession they wont loose their jobs here (If they kill 100 patients )But other jobs here ...and other countries .
They earn more than 10-15 times of their basic salary from private practice.

we do have one doctor for 1300 patients where as the normal average should be 300.
Can we talk to doctor ask like .....why did u write commercial name of a medicine instead of generic name, do we get side effects on this medicine etc......NEXT DAY THEY WILL GO ON STRIKES PUTTING INNOCENT PATIENTS AT RISK ,....BUT THEY WILL DO PRIVATE PRACTICE DURING THE SAME PERIOD........

"Doctors prescribe medicine with commercial name instead of generic names"

why?
There is no proper drug policy in Sri Lanka.If a doctor write a drug in a generic name patient has to buy it from a pharmacy where the pharmacist sells the drug which gives the highest profit to him.(no quality needs)It's like asking for a toilet soap from a grocery without mentioning the trade name where MUDALALI has freedom to decide.If the doctor knows the patient's affordability he could prescribe the best quality drug that patient could afford.

"we do have one doctor for 1300 patients where as the normal average should be 300.
Can we talk to doctor ask like .....why did u write commercial name of a medicine instead of generic name, do we get side effects on this medicine etc....."

The answer already there.Doctors do not have much time to talk with patients as said above.if a doctor had long chat with one person others has to go back with empty hands.

"NEXT DAY THEY WILL GO ON STRIKES PUTTING INNOCENT PATIENTS AT RISK ,....BUT THEY WILL DO PRIVATE PRACTICE DURING THE SAME PERIOD........"

In Sri lanka doctors has done only few strikes,At all those time EMERGENCY services not interrupted.NO SLMC registered doctors did private practice during that period.
May be some quacks did.

BY LOOKING AT YOUR 2 POSTS I THINK YOU HAVE A GREAT ANGER OR JEALOUSY WITH DOCTORS.

Well friends i don't thing whether how many of you will agree with me or not, but the value for Academics and Professional coming down day by day.

Here is my general thought on this topic even though its little bit far away from the topic and not intended to hurt anybody

In this forum also we had a senior member, who is a professor but i am sure his salary is considerably low when compare with the some of the private tuition class teachers, is anybody things the duty of the professor is easy?

See the salary difference of an engineer who works for the State Engineering Corporation and the person who works at a leading construction company

Just thing about the fees of a leading lawyer with the lawyer attach with the AG Department

Compare the salary of a Chartered Accountant who works in a Government Organisation with the Chartered Accountant working in a Leading Company

these are just few which came to my mind, if you compare the list it will go on

Some talked about the Kick Backs, but kick backs involve in lots of several sectors

Thanks .Wiki for your link and other friends for their valuable ideas.

I was trying bring the issues facing by many patients facing in SL.

Lack of medical professionals here .AL students who gets even average higher marks are not allowed to enter medical college (Compare a student in Colombo district who gets marks and ranked as 400 in Colombo district and a student in Monaragala district who gets lesser lower marks than Colombo pupil and ranked as no 1 in Monaragala)
My dear friends Globally also like that ,An Indian student who get lesser qualification than our average student will enter medical college there and get a degree and work here .then why should we block our own people where as other countries it is the other way around.(apply this to Our Banking sector, Software development and other areas who the private sector is leading)
(In our History itself this mistake is there .Our kings fight to take the control of this land , even brothers in the same family fought against each other to get the throne But other countries British , France , Italy….what did they do ?
Like wise we all talk to block our own children where as the other nationals take the advantage .No one talks about more than Rs 50 spent on foreign Education.

“Navitas”, World famous Australian University sometimes back had a plan to come to Asia .Originally They selected Our Country .But our people said Education is going to be privitised and had several protest against this Understanding the clear negative outcome they gave up the idea without making a single statements knowing exactly their real value.After that they only Marked their presence at Malaysia instead of SL.I personally know people who did the protest against this Campus their children are getting their education at London.
Then who are the fools ?
Navitas campus attract more than 1000 students from SL in a year and a large no of students from Asia.

Now world is transforming towards technological sophistication from human brain minimizing human errors and more accurate data and diagnosis system.
That is why we have MRI , ultra sound Scanners , laser Diming technology..etc.
That is why many countries identifying the real ground situation ,are focusing more on technology development , experiments , and then and there average marks is very reasonable for medical entrance.
Like wise there are lot of things that can be discussed.
FINALLY .I WILL TELL LIKE THIS.
THERE ARE MORE THAN 100 UNIONS IN HEALTH CARE SECTOR WHO WANT TO INCREASE THEIR SALARIES , ALLOWANCES , AND OTHER BENEFITS, BUT THERE IS NOT A SINGLE ACTIVE ORGANIZATION FOR THE RIGHTS OF THE POOR PATIENTS .THEY WAIT , WAIT, WAIT AND DIE WITHOUT MAKING A FUSS AND MOST OF THE PEOPLE DO NOT UNDERSTAND THAT.
IF YOU HAVE LOOK AT THIS FORUM (IN THIS TOPIC) ITSELF IT IS CORRECTLY SHOWN ,VERY LITTLE IS TALKED ABOUT PATIENTS.
TOMORROW ALSO WE FIGHT , FIGHT ,AFFORDABLE PEOPLE GO TO PRIVATE HOSPITAL , POORs WIL DIE WITHOUT MAKING FUSS .
LET US PRAY…….THAT IS WHAT WE CAN DO…….AS POOR .

THANKS FRIENDS