Starter Kit. Idea 376 of 500. Cluster 18
Rotations for Sri Lankan doctors abroad: a month a year at a Sri Lankan hospital, arranged and housed
The mechanism, from the book
1.5 million people abroad who know how rich countries work, and who send home money and little else.
The first step
Put one question to the medical superintendent of a hospital at home: which specialties run short for a month at a time, and would they host a visiting Sri Lankan doctor from abroad. Then approach a group of Sri Lankan doctors in one city abroad and ask who would give a month if the placement, housing and paperwork were arranged for a fee. A host's yes and one doctor's booking is the pilot.
- Who pays first
- A Sri Lankan doctor abroad who wants to give time at home but will not spend weeks arranging the paperwork, housing and a placement alone.
- What leaves today
- Specialist skill trained abroad never returns, even for a month; an arranged rotation brings it back to hospitals at home on a regular schedule.
Ask first
- Sri Lanka Medical Council. Ask what a doctor registered abroad must do to practise here for a month.
Check before you spend
The doctor's temporary registration to practise here, the hospital's written agreement, indemnity cover, and who pays for housing and travel.
Find out these three numbers
- Which specialties run short for a month at a time?
- What fee would a doctor abroad pay to have it arranged?
- What does housing near the hospital cost for a month?
A comparison from the book
The doctors. Chapter Eight
"have already sat the examinations required to practise in another country."
Many doctors will work abroad; a month a year at home brings part of that skill back.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.