SLMC’s minimum standards draft ready

The Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC) has completed drafting the minimum standards for medical education on Friday (07), Dr. Upul Gunasekara said.

Dr. Gunasekara, a member of the SLMC, told the Daily News that in accordance with the Medical Ordinance, the SLMC is to send the standards to all  medical faculty boards for observations and recommendations.

“There are eight State medical faculties and the Kotelawala Defence University’s medical faculty. Once we receive their observations and recommendations, we will call for another emergency council meeting to finalize and forward the minimum standards for medical education to the Ministry of Health,” Dr. Gunasekara said.

Dr. Gunasekara also noted that the SLMC had sent the minimal standards in 2004, 2006 and 2009, which were rejected in Parliament.

“Then we adopted these standards as a regulation of the Medical Council. During the following six to seven years, we used it to evaluate all medical faculties in Sri Lanka,” Dr. Gunasekara explained.

When the issue regarding the minimum standards for medical education in Sri Lanka came up again, we appointed a committee including medical educationists, educationists, deans, SLMC members and experts in the legal field to look into it, Dr. Gunasekara also said.

The finalized minimum standards in medical education come as a result of the diligence of the committee, Dr. Gunasekara said.