The Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) announced it would launch a continuous strike without prior notice if a permanent solution to the South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine (SAITM) issue were not given.

The GMOA, together with adherents of the local university system, have launched several strikes in the past in protest of SAITM that they claim is a ‘hora upadi kadey’  - without proper standards.

The government offered a solution to the SAITM issue by taking the Neville Fernando Teaching Hospital attached to SAITM under its wing, making it a government entity, not a private one and extending the training offered to students by 6 months at two leading government hospitals.

However the GMOA and local university students as well as the Marxist JVP are continuing their protest against the private medical faculty calling for SAITM to be ‘abolished’ and shut down completely.