Editorial

A bouquet for LRH surgeons

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Thursday 1st Octoberr, 2020

Respected surgeon Prof. A. H. Sheriffdeen, recently took up with the President of the College of Surgeons of Sri Lanka a complaint against the Lady Ridgeway Hospital (LRH) about an alleged delay in performing an operation on a child with a ruptured appendix. He faulted a paediatric surgeon. Now, he has found that there was no lapse on the part of the surgeon concerned and admitted that he fired from the hip. (Please, see his letter published on the opposite page, today.) Inquiries we made with the help of some independent medical experts, upon receiving Prof. Sheriffdeen’s response, also confirmed that the LRH surgeon had performed his duty diligently; the child received timely surgical care, made an uneventful recovery and left hospital five days later. All’s well that ends well.

We hate to train our editorial guns on the state-run hospitals, but the alleged delay and the respected guru’s complaint brought us to have the good paediatric surgeon in our cross hairs. Thankfully, we fired only a warning shot as it were; no names were named. The special mention we made of the good work of the LRH and its doctors, especially the Little Hearts Project, which is the jewel in the LRH’s crown, was intended to prevent damage being caused to the reputation of the premier institution. We are sorry that our news item and the editorial comment have caused pain of mind to the good surgeon, who has also come under attack by the social media piranhas known for their feeding frenzy.

The LRH is turning 125, and Dr. B. J. C. Perera, a well-known consultant paediatrician and teacher, pays a glowing tribute to it, in an article published in this newspaper, today. We join him in offering a bouquet to the LRH staff, especially the surgeon, whose feelings we have hurt, and his colleagues, who have rightly circled the wagons.

 

Govt.’s concern about environment

 

The government has cancelled the Light Rail Transit (LRT) project, which the yahapalana government was planning to implement with Japanese funds. Among the five reasons the Cabinet has given for its decision to scrap the project is its concern for the environment!

The Cabinet has also said that according to the original plan, light rail vehicles were to operate alongside the existing conventional rail tracks. Such systems are in operation in other countries, but here an LRT system is needed to cater to the conurbations of Colombo, which are not linked to the city by railway. A separate project is needed to develop the existing tracks so that trains can travel faster.

Interestingly, the Cabinet says that if a light rail track is to be built on concrete pillars, as proposed by the previous administration, the project will cause severe environmental damage. We are baffled. When the Southern Expressway was built, some members of the then Rajapaksa government said it should have been constructed on pillars. One of them was Minister Wimal Weerawansa, who is a member of the present Cabinet as well.

Is the government really concerned about what it calls the adverse environmental impact of the aborted LRT project? We have our doubts, for the current rulers have allowed a road to be built through some parts of the Sinharaja rainforest. Environmentalists are protesting against an alleged move to build another road to Horton Plains, which is already under threat owing to a large number of vehicles entering it via two roads. A government politician’s brother recently destroyed a mangrove forest in Puttalam to build a prawn farm. Having absconded, he got bail after surrendering to courts. The police are dragging their feet on an investigation into the destruction of a part of a forest on a state land in Aruwakkalu. The culprits are at large because they have political connections. A backhoe used for clearing the forest was driven away while the police were present at the scene. This machine can be easily traced and the land-grabbers arrested. But no action has been taken. So much for the government’s concern for the environment!

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