Doctors in government hospitals have stopped issuing "chits" – private prescriptions – for patients to obtain medicines and laboratory tests from outside facilities. Many are calling this a "doctors' strike." However, Ravi Kumudesh, President of the Association of Health Professionals, states that this is not industrial action, but the correction of a long-standing and grave error. So, what is really happening? Let's take a closer look.

Industrial Action or a Correction?

Sri Lanka operates a free healthcare service, maintained by public funds. The fundamental principle is that any citizen visiting a government hospital has the right to receive all necessary health services free of charge. Providing this service is the government's responsibility. Doctors and other healthcare staff are paid salaries by the state precisely to fulfil this duty.

As Ravi Kumudesh points out, when a patient at a government hospital is referred to a private institution to pay for a required medicine or test because it's unavailable in-house, it constitutes a serious legal and ethical breach. It is a direct violation of the free healthcare concept. What doctors are doing now is simply refusing to continue committing this professional error. He questions, "How can refusing to commit a professional error be considered industrial action?"

The Scheme Behind the Scenes

Allegations are surfacing that a large, unseen mechanism is at play, unknown to the public.

1. Lack of Funding: There is an accusation that the government does not provide adequate funding for essential medicines and laboratory facilities in hospitals.
   
   

2. Inefficiency at the Ministry of Health: It is also said that the Ministry of Health lacks a clear plan to efficiently manage even the allocated funds and deliver necessary resources to hospitals.
   
   

3. The Privatisation Conspiracy: A belief exists that there is pressure from parties like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to cut back on free services. Ravi Kumudesh alleges a hidden agenda here: to create an artificial shortage in hospitals, push patients towards the private sector, and thereby gradually weaken the free healthcare system while strengthening private enterprise.
   
   

4. The Commission Racket: The most shocking revelation is that over 25% of the money patients spend on external medicines and tests does not go towards the service itself, but as a 'commission' distributed among the parties involved in this process. Consequently, the patient unknowingly ends up paying the very people who are denying them their right to free healthcare.

With doctors stopping the issuance of "chits," this entire corrupt system has been challenged. The government and the Ministry of Health can no longer hide from their responsibilities.

What Should the Public's Fight Be?

The inconvenience faced by the public in this situation is real. However, it is crucial to identify the true adversary. The public's struggle should not be to demand that doctors "write us a chit," but to pressure the government to "provide the necessary medicines and tests for free within the hospital."

Many see this action initiated by doctors as a decisive step towards safeguarding the free healthcare service. Ravi Kumudesh insists that this action must continue and that it requires the public's full support.

Finally, a question that leaves us all with something to think about: "Can a government that claims to be highly socialist allow an achievement won by the people—from supposedly 'highly capitalist' governments—to be reduced to an empty shell?"

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