Posts

Internship

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After a long hiatus, started writing again. Its very difficult to put words together cohesively with all the rage and anger. This time, its about the crisis now the health service is facing. Just to recap: the struggle of medical students against SAITM was taking place since 2010 (just when I entered medical faculty), it reached a peak when the students boycotted studies for more than one year. The moment the students started boycotting the studies, the health community knew that it is going into a crisis. But yet they did not do their best to arrive at the solution, the administrators, the directors, the consultants, the PG trainees, the MOs and the SHOs, they kept on with their routine life knowing that the crisis is imminent. I also kept on with my work and did not do my to the efforts of the juniors. Now we are at the crisis to which the seeds were sown when students came out of lecture halls. From December 1st 2018, there are no intern house officers in the hospitals. This
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Ignorance is bliss

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Since October 2011 (the month I joined the Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo), we have been going on for pickets, protests, silent pickets, candle light vigils, public awareness campaigns, signature collecting events against an illegal institution (SAITM should not be called an institution but a business venture). We have walked to University Grants Commission, Ministry of Higher Education, Ministry of Health, Sri Lanka Medical Council, Presidential secretariat, President's house, and parliament. I am not sure whether there are any other places where we could have walked to make our pleas heard. Our voices fell on deaf ears both of the rulers and the ruled. Our peaceful protests were returned first with water cannon, then with tear gas and currently with lathi-charge. I pray that days of rubber bullets followed by real bullets and bombs will not come. Us and our protests were labelled with various terms including radicals, political parties, disruptors. Soon we will be tag
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SAITM

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This is a very convoluted and difficult to understand post. It is directly on my thoughts on 25/04/2017 press interview. Our politicians start their discussion on free education and reaffirm that they are committed to protect free education. In the middle of the way they say that SAITM is equipped with all the professors, lecturers and consultants and state medical faculties do not have that. But they do not come with a proposal how they are going to recruit the staff to state medical faculties. Okay, lets hope that government gives SAITM hospital and gives clinical training and that solution is accepted by all other parties. What is the government planing to do if many more private faculties come up and request for government hospitals? So if government starts to give hospitals on what basis would they be giving. Definitely it should be on bidding basis. It would be like government bidding the patients for private entities. Isn't there a ethical issue and how could the patient
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Independence

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"Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains. One man thinks himself the master of others, but remains more of a slave than they are." - Jean-Jacques Rousseau This is not a philosophical post about independence. This is regarding what happened in the next few years after independence and the silent atrocities done to a segment of its people. Today generally I see the estate Tamils or Indian Tamils (although it is not the correct term to describe them, the most correct term would be Sri Lankans of recent Indian origin) being ridiculed, they are considered for menial tasks and odd jobs. The health ministry has many programs targeting the estate population. The university entrance of them is considerably lower compared to other population. School drop out rate is higher among them. Why does it happen like that? The answers are the excerpts from the book "Palmyra Fallen" by Rajan Hoole. "In three Citizenship Acts dragged over fourteen months, the governm
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District Quota

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In 1971, university entrance was based on a quota system according to the medium of instruction. District quota system was introduced in 1977. These two were done to rectify the disparities due to availability of resources. The first one created many angered youth and a 30 year long civil war. The second one is a hot topic for people to discuss whether it is good or bad. But recently with the private medical college issue and everything, the district quota system is being used as a justification why a private medical college is essential in Sri Lanka. And the craziest thing is that the justification being told by the government ministers, past higher education minister.  First of all, the district quota system should have been an interim measure and there should have been a proper plan/ vision on how to share the resources across the island, so the student studying in a rural school in Monaragala and the student studying in Colombo have the equal access to resources, so a day could
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Future and uncertainty

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"Future is not set on stone" What scares me to the core is the future and its associated uncertainty. Nearly 5 years ago, I started my med school career, I had no idea what my plan for the future. Now, just 3 months for the final exams, I am still at that place with no plan for the future. What is more distressing is that, you see your friends and classmates who started with you and enrolled in other courses in university are graduating and are with a plan for the future while you are still stuck in this place with so much uncertainties. Adding more to the stress is that people asking you what type of doctor are you going to be. And I come up with different answers each time that question is asked. Adding onto this, the exam stress of the Final MBBS and the merit list and performance anxiety of the long and short cases are the perfect blend to make a person insane. People say setting short term goals would help in this situation and I have been doing that for the past 5
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Education, protests and misconceptions

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As a state university student, whenever there is a protest by university students, I hear a lot of public outcry by both educated and uneducated telling that "It is only in Sri Lanka that it is happening. All because of free education, students do not value the education given to them. In all the western countries students have to pay for their education and they don't do protests and they value their education." What amazes me is these people do not even try to see how it is in other countries, how students are protesting and for what they are protesting. The same problems exist in other countries even in western countries and in countries where students have to pay for the education. Here are some of the videos from YouTube of those protests. 2010 London - "Tens of thousands of students marched through London on Wednesday against plans to triple university tuition fees, and violence erupted as a minority battled police and trashed a building containing the headquar
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