Taking over of NFTH will aggravate SAITM issue: Uni. heads

The Government’s move to take over the Neville Fernando Teaching Hospital (NFTH) would aggravate the SAITM issue rather than resolving it, the Federation of Faculty of Medicine Teachers’ Association (FFMTA) said today.

Prof. Mahinda Komalage of the Karapitiya Medical Faculty said that taking over of the NFTH was a proposal of Dr. Neville Fernando and added that it was only he who would be benefitted from the move.

“Neither the GMOA, university students nor medical faculty heads requested the government to take over the NFTH. Only Dr. Fernando wanted the government to take it over as he could not maintain it due to high maintenance cost and lack of patients. It was a white elephant. He is the only person to feel happy over the decision to take it over,” he said.

Prof. Komalage said another issue would arise if the Hospital was taken over with its staff including the doctors and nursing staff as most of the doctors are retired while the nurses are not registered with the Sri Lanka Nurses Council or Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC).