The junior staff of the Colombo National Hospital stress that they will continue the protests until the hospital’s Deputy Director Dr. Rukshan Bellana is removed from his position.
They resorted to this move against the criticisms made by Dr. Bellana regarding the junior staffers’ involvement in the recent strike launched by health trade unions over disparities in allowances.
On Friday (Feb. 16), Dr. Bellana was forcibly held inside his office by the junior staff of the hospital. Later, a tense situation arose in front of the hospital as the staff members commenced a demonstration.
Thus, police anti-riot squads were also deployed to beef up the security of the hospital premises.
A collective of 72 health sector trade unions recently carried out an island-wide strike action over disparities in allowances, which was heavily criticized by Dr. Bellana.
However on Wednesday (14), the health trade unions decided to call off their strike after Health Minister Dr. Ramesh Pathirana had agreed to a discussion with them.
The trade unions representing a wide range of health sector professionals, including radiology and laboratory technicians, pharmacists and drug compounders, midwives, public health inspectors, and entomology officers have engaged in strikes over the past few months demanding an allowance hike.
The trade union actions stemmed from the Cabinet Ministers’ approval of President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s proposal to double the DAT allowance paid to government doctors, raising it from Rs. 35,000 to Rs. 70,000.
Against this backdrop, a special gazette notification was published on February 13, declaring the provision of healthcare as an essential public service.
