Government medical officers demand urgent workforce revision

The Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) urged an immediate revision of the approved cadre of doctors and other health workers, warning that delays threaten the future stability of the free health service.

Health workforce numbers are critical for ensuring continuous, equitable, and internationally standardised patient care, requiring adequate staff deployment across all institutions according to provided services.

A scientific and analytical revision of the workforce covering the entire country has not occurred for a long period, with the last medical cadre revision taking place in 2015 and subsequent amendments limited to selected hospitals.

The health service expanded significantly over the past decade due to population growth, new hospitals and units, new specialist fields, advanced treatments, system changes, disease patterns, epidemics, and natural disasters.

The approved cadre failed to increase in line with these developments, forcing health workers to manage an unsustainable workload.

Sri Lanka lost more than 25,500 specialists and doctors since 2022 due to migration, while the approved medical officer count remains tied to the 2015 figures.

That number is insufficient to meet current service needs.

Although the association repeatedly highlighted this necessity, the process remains incomplete, and the failure to identify actual workforce requirements hinders future doctor recruitment.

The Management Services Commission, responsible for final decisions on cadre revisions, failed to identify actual human resource needs.

The revision must transcend a mere administrative exercise, relying instead on a scientific and analytical assessment with a long-term outlook.

Evaluations should consider patient numbers, service volumes, procedures, investigations, service complexity, 24-hour requirements, newly established institutions, and new disciplines introduced over the past decade.

Authorities must identify and fill vacancies created by professional migration while incorporating future challenges and structural changes into the assessment.

Ensuring adequate human resources remains essential for improving service quality and patient safety.

Relevant stakeholders must discuss and agree to revise the entire health workforce cadre immediately.

Establishing a mechanism to regularly review approved cadres according to changing service requirements will prevent similar long-term delays.

Maintaining sufficient and quality health personnel is essential for the continued stability of the hospital system in the years ahead.