The Government of Sri Lanka has temporarily suspended sending medical personnel for overseas specialist training, confirmed the Director General of Health Services (DGHS).
The Ministry of Health has made the move due to the lack of foreign currency to make payments for the medical officers amidst the forex crisis, DGHS Dr. Asela Gunawardena told the Postgraduate Institute of Medicine (PGIM) in a letter.
Sri Lanka is suffering from its worst economic crisis since independence and the Health Ministry is grappling against the arrangement of payments for medical officers who are already working overseas in their mandatory foreign training.
Accordingly, all overseas training will be temporarily suspended and the PGIM is instructed to suspend the offering of further recommendations for overseas training, especially those who are planning to be completely dependent on monthly living allowance offered by the Health Ministry.
The move, however, will not affect those who have already arranged departure i.e. reserved air tickets and / or obtained visa, subject to use their own money for expenses during the period of training, and reimbursement from the Ministry later.
There will be no restrictions for those who have arranged their overseas training as paid jobs and the PGIM is expected to assist them in funding placements with paid job opportunities, said Dr. Gunawardena the DGHS.
MIAP
