Docs, politicians and shamans

Friday 18th December, 2020

Many Sri Lankans are likely to miss the rare celestial dance of Jupiter and Saturn next Monday, due to bad weather, etc., but they need not worry. They have already witnessed something extremely rare: doctors and the Minister of Health have seen eye to eye. The Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA), which is not at peace with the Health Ministry, has praised Health Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi. It is happy that she has sacked the members of the Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC). If only they agreed on other issues as well for the sake of the ordinary people, who suffer immensely due to trade union disputes in the health sector.

One may not contest or endorse the GMOA’s position on the SLMC sackings, which have however been condemned in some quarters, but one is puzzled by the government’s thinking. One of the reasons given for the removal of the SLMC members is the alleged registration of some persons without requisite qualifications as doctors. The GMOA has said so, according to a news item we published yesterday. Out of curiosity, one seeks an explanation from the Health Minister.

Health Minister Wanniarachchi was recently seen swallowing a spoonful of herbal syrup prepared by a kapuwa (custodian of a shrine), who flaunts it as a miracle potion capable of killing coronavirus, of all things. Thereafter, thousands of people went running to his shrine, where he distributed the decoction free of charge. In so doing, they threw caution to the wind and exposed themselves to the virus. Thus, the Health Minister seems to think that knowledge of medicine is not necessary for a person to find a cure for COVID-19, which has befuddled the entire global scientific community. How can anyone who promotes untested ‘remedies’ produced by shamans question the eligibility of those who fail to enter local medical faculties but graduate from foreign medical schools? Most of all, how would the Health Minister reconcile her willingness to rely on untested, homemade herbal brews, and practices such as dumping clay pots into rivers in trying to tackle the pandemic, with the government’s claim that it has sought to raise the standards of the medical profession, among other things, by getting tough with the SLMC?

Several MPs were also seen drinking the shaman’s decoction at the Parliament complex, the other day. Some doctors within the government ranks have said that the educational qualifications of the person who claims to have found the so-called cure for COVID-19 are immaterial, and what really matters is the ‘remedy’. A minister has sought to defend the shaman by asking whether anyone questioned the educational qualifications of Newton, who came up with the theory of gravity after a falling apple bonked him on the head. He seems to think Newton was an ordinary person who had that epoch-making aha moment solely because of the shock from the apple. Such politicians should be made to sit under coconut palms with mature nuts about to fall so that they, too, will get their aha moments, or the public will be relieved of the burden of maintaining them.

How can the politicians who fall for the claims of shamans hook, line, and sinker argue that the public will be in great peril unless restrictions are imposed on the registration of the medical graduates from foreign universities as doctors?

We are not arguing that all foreign qualified medical graduates should be registered with no questions being asked about their educational qualifications. Instead, ours is an attempt to point out that the government policy and action anent the SLMC and the professional standards of doctors is full of contradictions.