By Norman Palihawadane

Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne yesterday ordered Director General of Health Services Dr Jayasundara Bandara to transfer Acting Chief Medical Officer of the Welikda Prisons Hospital Dr Nirmali Thenuwara to the National Hospital, Colombo immediately.

A spokesman for the Health Ministry told The Island that the Minister had ordered the transfer of the Acting Chief Medical Officer following concerns raised by 19 doctors attached to the prison hospital.

The doctors met Minister Senaratne and submitted a report containing 26 allegations against Dr Thenuwara. They requested the minister to conduct an investigation into the charges. The Health Minister instructed his Ministry to hand over the report to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID).

The vacancy created by the transfer would be filled by Dr JK Malwattage, Ministry spokesman said.

Last week, MP Hirunika Premachandra wrote to Minister Senaratne calling for the transfer of the doctor. In her letter, Premachandra accused the doctor of giving special treatment to influential inmates transferred to the prison hospital.

Social Empowerment, Welfare and Kandyan Heritage Deputy Minister Ranjan Ramanayake and civil society activists also last week asked the Secretary to the Ministry of Health why the ministry had failed to implement the transfer of Dr Nirmali Thenuwara, who had recommended that the former President’s Secretary Lalith Weeratunga and Director General Anusha Palpita convicted in the sil redi case, be warded at the prison hospital.

Deputy Minister Ramanayake, in an earlier letter, requested the Director General of Health, Dr Jayasundera Bandara, to transfer Dr Thenuwara for giving special treatment to Weeratunge and Palpita.

Ramanayake alleged that Dr Thenuwara had intervened on behalf of the convicts and tried to move them to the prison hospital even before they were photographed and issued with numbers.

Courtesy:The Island