Symposium on medico legal issues to be held on 25 June

Thursday, 20 June 2013 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

A thought leadership forum in collaboration with the Sri Lanka Medical Association will present A symposium on medico legal issues with the participation of leading representatives from the medical and legal professions, academia and the insurance industry on Tuesday, 25 June 2013, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (sixth floor –new building complex) located on 30A, Malalasekera Mawatha, Colombo 7. Medico legal environment of New Zealand The symposium will commence with a presentation on ‘Learning from the lessons of the Medico Legal Environment of New Zealand’ by Hiranthi Abeygoonesekera, Chief Legal Counsel, Capital and Coast District Health Board, Wellington, New Zealand. In her role as Head of Legal Services for a large hospital in Wellington, Abeygoonesekera regularly provides advice to clinical staff on medical law. “The interface between law and medicine creates significant ethical dilemmas for both clinicians and lawyers” said Abeygoonesekera, who will speak on New Zealand’s medico-legal framework, which focuses on creating accountability rather than fault. She has extensive experience working with medical professionals in New Zealand. Abeygoonesekera was admitted as a barrister and solicitor in New Zealand in 1992. She also holds a Masters degree in dispute resolution from Massey University. A Sri Lankan perspective Her presentation will be followed by a presentation on ‘Challenges and Opportunities: A Sri Lankan Perspective’ by Dr. Kumar Senanayake, President of the College of Forensic Pathologists. Dr. B.J.C. Perera, President of SLMA will chair the symposium. A panel discussion and an interactive session with the audience participating will then begin. Legal, insurance and judicial medical perspectives The panel will address legal, insurance and judicial medical perspectives. Past President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka and Founder of The Thought Leadership Forum, Ranel T. Wijesinha, who initiated this collaborative endeavour, will moderate the panel discussion and interactive session. The panel The panel will comprise the following: President’s Counsel Uditha Egalahewa who has over 23 years of litigation experience in both original and appellate courts especially dealing with public law, insurance, banking, commercial and labour law matters. Egalahewa is currently serving as a Commissioner of the Legal Aid Commission of Sri Lanka. He was the permanent Legal Advisor to the Public Enterprise Reforms Commission (PERC) of Sri Lanka, a public body set up to formulate, execute and regulate the public enterprise reforms strategy of the Government under the aegis of the World Bank. He is a senior visiting lecturer to several academic and professional organisations including the University of Wales, United Kingdom, conducting lectures in Sri Lanka for the Master of Laws in international trade law, insurance law and labour law. The insurance aspects will be addressed by Nihal Senaratne, a chartered insurance broker with 60 years of experience and Chairman of Senaratne Insurance Brokers and Senaratne Global Services, providers of health insurance on behalf of BUPA, AVIVA and Swiss Life. Dr. Ajith Tennakoon, Chief Judicial Medical Officer, Colombo, will address judicial medical aspects and will complement and supplement the presentation on ‘Challenges and Opportunities – A Sri Lankan Perspective’ by Dr. Kumar Senanayake, President of the College of Forensic Pathologists, Sri Lanka. Participation is limited but free Participation is limited and is free of charge. Members of the SLMA are requested to register with the SLMA office early. Participation of non members of the SLMA is by invitation only, and by The Thought Leadership Forum. The Thought Leadership Forum The Thought Leadership Forum (TLF) was launched in November 2005 and over the years, has contributed many articles on matters of national and sectorial economic interest, relating inter-alia to the market economy, regulation, privatisation, state owned enterprise reform, reconstruction, restoration, reconciliation and many other topics. These were contributed gratis to the print media. Contributions to the electronic media included television interviews of global and local personalities in the areas of international banking, multilateral finance and development funding, corporate strategy, mergers and acquisitions and international standards of accounting and auditing just to name a few. More recently, on the invitation of the respective institutions, interactive events of the Sri Lanka Institute of Directors, Bilateral Business Councils, in house events of large public quoted companies and other intellectual exchanges were moderated. Commenting on the policy dialogue he has engaged in over the years, Ranel Wijesinha stated: “I consider it a privilege to have been presented with these opportunities to contribute professional time on a gratis basis, through the Thought Leadership Forum – a forum whose guiding philosophy has been to enhance awareness which can in turn lead to tangible outcomes in the larger public interest while ensuring that the purpose and the process is devoid of political bias or private vested interest.” ‘The Thought Leadership Forum’ was incorporated some years ago. The TLF now intends to have carefully conceptualised and structured events each year, in collaboration with like-minded professionals and with associations and institutions, whose membership has professionals of other disciplines. The law suits in the USA Ranel Wijesinha added that organising an interactive event in Sri Lanka on medico legal issues, with insurance industry perspectives, has been a long held thought of his. A thought which dates back to the mid 1980s when he was first exposed to the widely analysed tussle between the legal

and medical professions in the USA, who each lobbied congress to either keep untouched or to cap the quantum of law suits. This thought was reignited many times in Sri Lanka but apparently more potently in 2009, while he was attending an event of the Think Tank of the CATO Institute in San Diego California, where the Health Care Reforms of the Obama Administration were critiqued. The New Zealand environment The decision to discuss the New Zealand environment, which does not enable lawsuits against doctors, through an event in Sri Lanka, was conceptualised in January 2012. “Thus, this event is not a sudden thought and I must thank the SLMA for responding so rapidly to my suggestion and I hope this will be the beginning of a constructive dialogue which will lead to changes for the better in the interests of all,” said Wijesinha, who has held regulatory appointments in statutory bodies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Consumer Affairs Council under the first Consumer Affairs Authority Act, the Sri Lanka Accounting and Auditing Standards Monitoring Board and the Monitoring and Advisory Committee of the Ministry of Power and Energy.