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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ibnanv" data-source="post: 21855573" data-attributes="member: 218596">Government doctors called off their three-day work stoppage Saturday  shortly after a consumer protection organization threatened to invoke  the wrath of gods on  them and socially ostracize the striking medical  officers. The   Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) said they decided to   “temporarily suspend” the trade union action after continuing a strike   across all state-sector hospitals  for three straight days to protest  private medical education. The consumer rights group, the National Movement for Consumer Rights Protection (NMCRP), had said it will from Sunday  stage ceremonies in front of the homes of GMOA executive  committee  members to invoke curses on them for holding hundreds of thousands of  patients to ransom. “We were planning to launch our activities from Sunday,  but we are pleased to note that the GMOA has called off the strike  shortly after we issued our warning,” NMCPR leader  Ranjith Vithanage  said. However,   the faction-ridden GMOA said the decision to halt the work stoppage   followed a “positive meeting” with President Maithripala Sirisena. GMOA   spokesman Samantha Ananda said the president had agreed to take   “positive steps” to resolve issues surround the private South Asian   Institute of Technology and Medicine  (SAITM). “The   president agreed to take steps to improve standards of medical   education and the quality of the medical service,” Ananda told reporters   in Colombo after a meeting with  the president on Saturday morning. He did not say if the government had committed to any specific moves. The   SAITM was established in 2008 under former president Mahinda  Rajapaksa,  but the GMOA began pressing action to scrap the SAITM only  recently  under the new government of  President Sirisena. The   GMOA argues that the education at SAITM is substandard and that many  of  its students do not have minimum qualifications for higher studies, a   position challenged by the  private college. Health   Minister Rajitha Senaratne has repeatedly asked the GMOA why they were   silent for eight years  and decided to raise the SAITM issue under the   new government which was  not responsible for creating the situation.   He has said that GMOA  president Anuruddha Padeniya was dreaming of  becoming a prime minister  under a Rajapaksa presidency and that GMOSA  action was politically  motivated. Although   the GMOA said the government had been positive to their demands and   agreed to a mechanism to resolve the issue, there was no immediate word   from the authorities. However,   government sources said they had only reiterated their position on the   need to improve standards of education and service delivery and there   was no shift in the state  policy of the administration regarding  private medical education. A clash erupted between two GMOA factions on Thursday  with one doctor smashing a ceramic tea cup on the face of another  colleague and breaking his nose. The bleeding doctor  was admitted to  the Colombo National Hospital where he spent overnight even as his  colleagues were on strike. The   doctor who was assaulted had wanted a two-week strike while others   wanted shorter work stoppages so that they could keep up their lucrative   private practices going. The   GMOA chief Anuruddha Padeniya was caught accepting fee-paying patients   at the Nawaloka hospital while he was on strike at his government job   recently. After Padeniya was  exposed by minister Ranjan Ramanayake,  Padeniya hurriedely cancelled  the private consultation for which he had  obtained money. Another   faction of the GMOA had also noted that across the country the public   opinion was turning against them and they should desist from resorting   to strikes and think of  other ways to win their demands. A government doctor was confronted at his private practice  in Galewala on Friday  while he was on strike at his state hospital. The doctor fled leaving  his footwear behind  at his private clinic when pursued by a television  cameraman. At Chilaw, patients turned restless as doctors refused to treat patients. There were similar incidents in many provincial towns. Public   anger mounted when doctors at the National Hospital Colombo refused to   treat four police officers who were injured during a clash with  students  who stormed the Health  ministry at Colombo on Wednesday. The   four policemen were later taken to the police hospital after being   deprived of any Medicare for three hours. Hospital authorities confirmed   that the policemen were denied  treatment, but the GMOA routinely  denied it.</blockquote>

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