The Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) rejected the President Maithripala's statement on SAITM and vowed to continue its struggle. After talking to GMOA representatives, the president's office said in a statement that SAITM was instructed to stop enrolling new students until the government issued the gazette notice stipulating the standards to be adopted for private medical education. GMOA's newly-appointed Secretary Haritha Aluthge told a news conference that they were in no way agreeable to legalizing SAITM in any form. He said the only option was to nationalise it. He said they believed that Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne had intervened alter the agreement reached at the meeting with the President. “Instead of abolishing SAITM, the statement paves the way to legalise it,” Dr. Aluthge said. He said the GMOA and the students union demanded that SAITM be abolished or nationalised. “The President told us to believe his word and call off the strike. We respected his word and had hoped he will mete out justice. We are looking forward to his explanation. He should correct the contradictions if we are to stop any further action,” Dr. Aluthge said. Meanwhile, he warned that the next couple of hours would be crucial and the GMOA will continue its strike and under no circumstances would they stop their trade union action until the government ends the SAITM issue and safeguards the patients' right to live and the future of the medical sector. (Thilanka Kanakarathna)
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