COLOMBO: Doctors at public health facilities across Sri Lanka went on a nationwide strike on Wednesday to demand better safety measures for healthcare workers following the rape of a woman doctor in the country’s third-largest hospital.
Thousands of doctors and other healthcare workers joined the strike following the incident that took place on Monday at the state-run Anuradhapura Teaching Hospital in the country’s north.
A suspect was arrested on Wednesday morning, but the strike continued as protesters called for greater protections and workplace safety measures.
“(The woman doctor) was sexually assaulted during her working time while she was fulfilling her duties,” Dr. Chamil Wijesinghe, spokesperson of the Government Medical Officers’ Association, which organized the strike, told Arab News.
“This is a brutal and inhumane incident which the whole medical fraternity of the country vehemently objects to … they are in a deeply shocked and saddened situation following this incident.”
On Tuesday, medical staff at the Anuradhapura Teaching Hospital started a protest to demand action by the administration, before GMOA called on its 23,000 members to join in solidarity.
Wijesinghe told Arab News that the incident has sparked fear among women doctors, who make up about 60 percent of GMOA’s members.
He said: “It’s a teaching hospital and is a bigger hospital in the country. Now the main concern of the lady doctors … is that if the situation in such a hospital is like this, what will be the fate of the doctors, especially the lady doctors who are working in a peripheral hospital, the rural hospitals, with minimum facilities and security?
“We firmly believe that this should create a new platform for us to safeguard the women within our society; not only the doctors, not only the government servants, (but) each and every one.”
The nationwide outrage also led Health Minister Nalinda Jayatissa to meet doctors and GMOA representatives at the Anuradhapura Teaching Hospital on Wednesday.
“We have to get assurance about security in working places … we had a meeting with the minister, and we highlighted what are the things to improve,” GMOA Secretary Dr. Prabath Sugathadasa told Arab News.
“All the lady doctors … they are in fear … they can’t go and work with this condition … so, we have to find a proper solution for this.”
