Parents of SAITM students call for justice

Parents of medical students of the Faculty of Medicine of the South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine (SAITM), Malabe in a letter to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe have requested justice for the MBBS graduates of SAITM.

Considering the Appeal Court order to give provisional registration of the Sri Lanka Medical Council to SAITM medical graduates, they have made a few proposals.

The Parents Association has proposed that the first three batches of SAITM MBBS graduates be considered separately from other SAITM medical students as the first batches had a fewer number of students (first batch – 24 students, second batch – 39 students and third batch – 35 students) and had the opportunity of being satisfactorily trained by dedicated professors and other senior clinicians. Other batches which were bigger than 60 should be given more clinical material, the association said. The patient: student ratio was satisfactory at the Neville Fernando Teaching Hospital in each section and the first batches were well trained. New technological methods used in developed countries had been used for training of SAITM students.

The letter further said that special clinical training in neurology, oncology, orthopaedics, etc. are conducted in reputed private hospitals under the guidance of senior consultants for SAITM medical students while paediatric emergencies and neonatal care programmes were done at the Lady Ridgeway Hospital for Children. 

On a Supreme Court order, the first three batches were trained on rehabilitation of mental patients, medico legal appointments in forensic medicine at Base Hospital Avissawella and MOH office functions at Kaduwela- MOH division, for which SAITM had paid Rs. 150,000 per student to the Ministry of Health.

At the end of each clinical appointment, a clinical assessment was done by external examiners from Government medical faculties and senior consultants in Government hospitals.

The students were allowed to sit for the final MBBS exam in SAITM only after the successful completion of all clinical appointments. The final MBBS examinations in May and October of 2016 and March 2017 for the first three batches were conducted by external examiners from State medical faculties and senior consultants from government hospitals. 

The SLMC visited SAITM in July 2015, though SAITM was given University Grants Commission (UGC) approval as a degree awarding institute in 2011 by a Government gazette notification. According to the SLMC guideline booklet, the SLMC should have visited SAITM annually until the first batch of students had passed out. However, the SLMC did not visit SAITM from 2011 until 2015 when the total number of students was 894, which the SLMC took into account. This, the parents claim, was unfair for the first three batches of students who were satisfactorily trained with adequate clinical facilities.

In July 2015, when the SLMC committee visited SAITM, a professor from the committee had asked the students about holding the final MBBS examination to be conducted by the SLMC for which the students had eagerly and promptly agreed. Unfortunately, the SLMC had not followed it until May 2016. 

The Parents Association had also requested the SLMC to conduct a standard final MBBS examination in 2015. A standard final examination was held according to UGC rules and regulations, with the direct involvement of external professors from state medical faculties and senior consultants in May and October 2016 for the first and second batches.

The Parents of medical students of the Faculty of Medicine request the authorities to attend to this matter promptly and render justice to the innocent students. They say internship should have been given to the students who passed out in 2016 as internship is a compulsory requirement. After the successful completion of internship, MBBS medical graduates can practise as doctors and are eligible for postgraduate studies.

Considering the larger batches (over 60 students) of present students, the Government should give State hospitals on a payment basis as Dr. Neville Fernando has already handed over his hospital to the Government for clinical training. The Government can consider a private-public partnership here.

This medical institute should be supervised by stakeholders for its sustainability. The Parents Association has urged the Prime Minister to look into this matter to render justice to the first batches of SAITM students who had spent seven-and-a-half years over a five-year course due to various external factors.