Patients number restricted

[TamilNet, Sunday, 25 October 1998, 17:32 GMT]
The Sri Lankan army has instructed the Manthikai hospital that it should send only a limited number of patients in its ambulance to Jaffna. The army at the Madaththadi camp has stipulated that only three patients can be taken at a time in the Manthikai hospital ambulance.

The army says that when a large number of patients are taken in the ambulance of the hospital to Jaffna, the Liberation Tigers could smuggle one of their own among the sick.

However, Manthikai hospital sources said that patients have to be sent daily to Jaffna as there is no surgeon at the hospital to conduct operations.

They said that the ambulance runs 5-6 times daily between Jaffna and Manthikai to cope with the situation and hence the army's regulation is unfair.