Following a complaint to the President as well as to the Commission to Investigate Bribery or Corruption by an aggrieved party regarding misconduct and malpractices in the kidney transplant program at Sri Jayewardenepura Hospital, the hospital director has issued written instructions to the specialist doctor in question to resume kidney transplant procedures immediately, hospital sources revealed.
According to sources, the hospital director was reportedly agitated after the complaint was forwarded to the President, with copies sent to the Minister of Health and Mass Media, the Secretary to the President, the Secretary to the Ministry of Health, and the Director General of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption. The complaint highlighted the failure of the hospital to take appropriate action against the unethical behavior of the doctor in question, conduct that had been repeatedly exposed by various parties.
The accused specialist doctor is alleged to have deliberately sabotaged the kidney transplant program for personal reasons. He had earlier refused to perform a kidney transplant on a female patient whose kidneys had been removed, a decision that led to his suspension. The hospital’s investigation report into this incident has reportedly remained on the desks of two successive Health Secretaries for over nine months.
The affected patient, identified as B.G.N. Kumuduni, had been admitted to Jayewardenepura Hospital for a kidney transplant. After both her kidneys were removed by the doctor and the transplant was not carried out, she was forced to undergo 55 dialysis sessions over six months, costing nearly Rs. 600,000.
Initial investigations, prompted by the woman’s formal complaint, uncovered that the specialist doctor had allegedly exploited patients for nearly a decade. According to the findings, he had caused patients discomfort or complications and then referred them to a private hospital in Thalawathugoda, where he offered his private medical services. This was part of the account shared publicly by the aggrieved patient.
In September last year, then Health Secretary Dr. Palitha Maheepala instructed the hospital to investigate the incident involving the removal of both kidneys without a subsequent transplant and to submit a report to the Ministry of Health.
The resulting investigation confirmed that the specialist doctor had indeed removed both kidneys and then arbitrarily withheld the transplant for six months. Based on this report, the hospital administration at the time suspended the doctor.
Despite the submission of this report to the former Health Secretary, Dr. Maheepala, no further action was taken. Likewise, the current Health Secretary, Dr. Anil Jasinghe, has yet to address the issue, hospital sources said.
As a result of these unresolved tensions—including disagreements between the specialist doctor and the hospital’s kidney transplant unit over diagnosis and treatment methods—kidney transplant surgeries at the hospital have come to a halt. The continued inaction on the investigation report by the Ministry of Health has only worsened the situation.
Notably, even though a disciplinary inquiry is currently underway against the doctor, the hospital director has not made any public statements about it. He was reportedly taken aback upon discovering that the letter sent to the President was also copied to the Bribery and Corruption Commission.
Hospital sources further confirm that patients awaiting transplants have died during the suspension of the transplant program. In this context, staff members and stakeholders at the hospital are now calling for a formal investigation into the conduct of certain doctors, who they claim are endangering the lives of patients through negligence and personal agendas.
