The Government Medical Officers’ Association has launched a symbolic strike today (March 31) protesting against unlawful transfer procedures, arbitrary reduction of hard station posts from 393 to 265 without scientific basis, and the politically motivated Arogya project that diverts doctors away from hospitals facing severe medical shortages.
This is a media release issued by the Government Medical Officers’ Association.
Regarding the symbolic strike scheduled for March 31, 2026, in protest against the Health Ministry’s violation of lawful procedures concerning doctor transfers.
Transfers of specialist, administrative, and grade medical officers occur according to a lawful and accepted procedure that includes institutional codes and procedural regulations. Transfer board meetings are held with the participation of all stakeholders, and the decisions are referred by the Health Ministry to the State Services Commission for approval.
However, the lists for post internship placements and transfers for hard stations for 2026 have been published by the Health Ministry unlawfully and arbitrarily, without transfer board approval and outside accepted procedures.
The Health Ministry has unlawfully reduced the number of hard stations from 393 to 265 without any scientific basis and without the agreement of stakeholders or transfer boards. We see this as a narrow political motive to hold media shows, deceiving doctors and the public into believing development has taken place.
Furthermore, the ability for doctors to apply for hard station postings after one year of active service has been arbitrarily extended to two years without any agreement or lawful procedure, causing severe injustice to doctors serving in those stations.
Due to these one sided wrongful decisions, many hard stations face the threat of closure due to doctor shortages. Ultimately, it is the country’s patients who suffer as a result of the Health Ministry’s unlawful and wrongful decisions.
Additionally, the approved number of medical posts, which determines the required number of doctors for hospitals nationwide, has not been updated for nearly ten years. As a result, a severe doctor shortage exists in all hospitals across the country, placing both patients and doctors in a highly crisis ridden situation in receiving and providing services.
Ignoring all this, a large number of doctors have been assigned as post internship medical officers to the Arogya project, a mere political show, without the lawful approval of the State Services Commission. If these doctors had been assigned to hospitals in areas suffering from severe medical shortages, they could have provided relief to patients in those regions. Instead, as an undesirable consequence of this political show, those patients have been deprived of those doctors.
Due to this unlawful and unfair transfer process, patients and doctors across the country are at risk of facing severe inconvenience and crisis. Although we have repeatedly informed Health Ministry authorities about this, we have not yet received a positive response from them.
Therefore, the Central Committee of the Government Medical Officers’ Association has decided to hold a nationwide symbolic strike from 8.00 a.m. on March 31, 2026, protesting against the aforementioned unlawful and arbitrary decisions and the crisis ridden situation that awaits the public, the health service, and doctors.
This trade union action will not be implemented at all maternity hospitals, all children’s hospitals, Maharagama Apeksha Hospital, special kidney units, tri forces hospitals, and the National Institute of Mental Health. All emergency treatment services will be carried out nationwide without trade union action.
We further wish to announce that if the Health Ministry does not intervene positively to resolve these issues after this, trade union action will be further intensified.
