Extorting Foreign Tourists at Rural Hospitals
January 27, Colombo (LNW): We as a nation currently trying to recover from the present economic crisis by wooing foreign tourists to our country, meanwhile some of our own health care workers who are paid by tax payers money are in the racket of extorting money from innocent foreigners who seek emergency treatment from our Government hospitals. So called socialist, free health care loving workers of hospitals along southern coastal belt hospitals are hell bent on charging & demanding money from foreigners who come to get treatment.
Recently a European Couple who had walked in to a southern base hospital to seek emergency treatment after a road traffic accident was demanded cash by Nurses and attendants on duty and were insisting on keeping their travel documents until they pay. Apparently this sort of thing has been going on for sometime. You could see many tourists who patronise Home stays are frequently visit our hospitals to avail themselves of medical treatment. Actually we could be advertising to the world about our health service and it’s quality. Instead of that certain elements are tarnishing our reputation by resorting to such low level of extortion. Hence Foreigners need to be warned of this racket at entry point to the country.
This is the real pathetic situation in our rural hospitals especially southern coastal belt and their administration had gone to dogs.
Superintendents of these hospitals are spineless in the eyes of these unqualified attendants & some of the Nurses. Many of them are scared of union action. It’s classic case of tail wagging the dog.
They tarnish the good image of Sri Lanka and our humble way of life and hospitality. These cheap rascals need to be brought to books and punished. If not our efforts of promoting Sri Lanka tourism are futile.
To mention another important thing is health administration must insist a proper dress code to our Doctors to prevent an out sider to identify our doctors from the nurses & attendants, because from their dress, patients cannot identify the difference of a doctor and others except for female nurses.
It is high time that our Director General of Health Services and the entire administration step in to avoid such indecent behaviour by these unscrupulous elements.
