What happened to the recommendations of the SLMC Committee on SAITM?

Friday, 15 September 2017 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

I read with interest the feature article by Prof. Carlo Fonseka on medical errors and medical education in a newspaper on 11 September.

It is interesting to note that when the SLMC Committee which visited SAITM stated that some areas of clinical training were deficient at SAITM and recommended that these deficiencies could be overcome by undergoing training for periods of one month each in the fields of medicine, surgery, paediatrics, psychiatry, community medicine and forensic, Prof. Carlo Fonseka did not include this key fact in his article.

These recommendations could have been made known and implemented, but were not.

It is even more interesting that of this recommended training, SAITM undergraduates have actually completed the components in forensic medicine, community medicine and psychiatry. The other recommendations could have easily been completed, were it not for the obstructive policies regarding SAITM, at each and every step.

The fact that the SLMC chose to deny registration to SAITM students rather than participate in the process of overcoming such deficiencies, speaks more about the attitudes and perspectives of persons involved in the decision-making process rather than this institution which was trying to establish itself. The decision of the SLMC to avoid proposing the recommendations forever changed what could have otherwise been a less onerous and time-consuming pathway for undergraduates and postgraduates in the State and private medical sector of this country.

A. Silva