Teams of expatriate Tamil doctors to arrive in NorthEast

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 January 2005, 16:29 GMT]
Fifteen doctors, including reputed practising surgeons, arrived from London tonight to serve in the tsunami hit Mullaitivu, the worst affected district in the Sunday disaster, said a Tamils Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) spokesperson in Colombo. "More doctors are coming. Medical professionals from U.S, Canada, and Europe are also due to arrive to work in the NorthEast areas at planned intervals," the spokesperson added.

The spokesperson said doctors and medicine are urgently needed and there is a severe shortage for medical staff. Sri Lanka has mobilized its medical staff and foreign doctors have started serving in the southern and eastern parts of the coastal belt that suffered unprecedented death toll and disaster.

But the coastal areas within the Northern Province has not received sufficient attention. Hospitals along the eastern and southern coast had been swept away by Sunday's massive waves.

Health Ministry said around 50 doctors and several paramedical personnel drowned on Sunday. Over 500 University students, including medical students, who lived in the coastal belt are missing according to Duminda Nagamuwa, convener, Inter university students federation said. He said the whereabouts of 564 university students are not known.

Twenty students of Ruhunu University who had gone to Matara pola (weekly market) to buy provisions were sucked away by the surging waves. The buildings in the market, the traders and the people who went marketing have also gone missing.

Sri Jayawardena university vice chancellor Chandima Wijabandara said he had sent the entire staff and students of the medical faculty to Galle and Hambantota to help the doctors there to deal with the situation. He said medical help and counseling are urgent needs.

Jaffna University vice chancellor Dr. S. Mohanadas said the medical faculty is working day and night in the eastern Vadamarachchi coast, the devastated part of the Jaffna district.