Foreign Placement Coordinating Centre

Room No 23, 5th Floor, Bandaranayake Building, National Hospital of Sri Lanka, Colombo 10.
Tele
: 0115 656767
E mail
: fpcc@health.gov.lk
Web
: www.health.gov.lk/fpcc.html

Overseas Placements for Sri Lankan Doctors

Country Situation
Sri Lanka is an Island of about 25,000 square miles in extent, which accommodates 19
million persons, consists of approximately 65% Sinhalese Buddhists, 16% Tamil Hindus,
9% Sinhala and Tamil Catholics and Christians, 7% Muslims and 3% many other
nationalities. In spite of the comparatively low economic indicators [ per capita
income 1600 US$], country enjoys > 90% literacy rate, of course due to free and equal
opportunity primary, secondary and tertiary education facilities prevailing here for
last seven decades.
Health Sector
Health affairs in Sri Lanka are rapidly advancing, and functioning well ahead of other
aspects of the socio-economical development of the country, which makes WHO to
advise Nepal and other countries to implement Sri Lankan health system in their
countries. The government health services are totally free and available to entire
population. There are about 400 state sector health institutions under the ministry of
health, which includes 24 main hospitals with over 1000 beds and many specialized
institutions, such as national cancer institute, medical research institute, central blood
bank service etc. There are about 14,000 doctors including 1100 specialists, 35,000
nursing staff and several thousands of supporting technical staff employed in the
state health sector. In addition to that, there are number of well equipped private
sector health institutions in main cities, which are holding 20% of the total hospital
bed fleet. The advancement of our health services are reflected in significantly
higher levels of health indicators Eg: crude mortality rate; 6.6, infant mortality rate
11.2/1000 live births, maternal mortality rate 0.14 / 1000 live births, life expectancy 7475 years.
Medical Education
There are seven faculties of medicine affiliated to the National Universities of Sri
Lanka, namely Colombo, Sri Jayawardenapura, Kelaniya, Peradeniya, Jaffna, North
Central (established very recently) and Ruhuna. All these medical faculties are listed
in the WHO directory and recognized by the GMC. The duration of medical
undergraduate course is five years of full time preclinical and clinical training
followed by one year internship before the newly passed-out doctor being registered
as medical practitioner by the Sri Lanka Medical Council. The approximate output is
around 800 medical graduates/ year. Another 200 medical graduates are coming
from medical schools overseas. The standards of medical education of local medical
faculties as well as assessment of overseas qualified doctors are strictly maintained by
the Ministry of Higher education and the Sri Lanka Medical Council.

Ministry of Health
Deputy Director General of Health Services (MS I)
Dr. Terrence de Silva

Director PGIM
Prof. Rezvi Sherif

FPCC Directors
Dr. Srilal De Silva (Consultant Paediatrician, LRH)
Dr. P R Ruwanpura (Consultant Judicial Medical Officer, TH Karapitiya)

FPCC Secretary
Dr. P.D.S. Ubeysiri

In Sri Lanka, all matters pertaining to post graduate medical education is handled by
the (PGIM) Post Graduate Institute of Medicine of the University of Colombo which is
part of the Ministry of Higher Education. The PGIM is managed by the Board consist of
Deans of the Medical Faculties, the Director General of Government Health Services
and representatives from other relevant government agencies. There are about 35
Boards of Study functioning at the PGIM, which conducts number of post graduate
degree programs, such as MSc, MD, and diploma courses in the various fields. The
post graduate programmes are conducted in par with accepted international
standards, in collaboration with Royal colleges of medicine in UK, Australia and other
countries, and many boards of study hold MRCP/ FRCS part I as part I of their local
MD/MS examinations. All MD examination panels necessarily render services of
eminent international experts as external examiners, again majority coming from UK,
Australia, India and USA. The MD/MS programmes consist of five years full time in
service training in Sri Lanka, followed by one to two years of compulsory post
doctoral training at the overseas centre of excellence in order to obtain Board
Certification as a specialist in particular field. The current annual output of the PGIM is
about 100 board certified specialists.
A board certified specialist is eligible to hold the consultant post in the Ministry of
Health or Senior Lecturer post or above in the medical school of a national university.
The Foreign Placement Coordinating Centre [FPCC] of the Ministry of Health
It has been noted that, with the current output rate of the medical graduates and
specialists, Sri Lanka is capable of rendering services of its medical experts to other
countries, where such necessity arises. The FPCC is established to facilitate
coordination of overseas placements of local doctors, without disrupting smooth
functioning of the national health services. The main objectives of the FPCC are to
find placement for Sri Lankan doctors at the overseas medical institutions in the
context of knowledge economy, to conduct medical expert exchange programs
to facilitate international collaboration and research activities, to expose of local
medical professional to the advancement of medical science achieved by other
nations, to facilitate further post graduate training for Sri Lankan doctors, and to
improve image of the country and goodwill with other countries. FPCC is intended to
arrange special overseas leave, cover-up services and other formalities necessary in
this programme. This programme will help us to upgrade professional standards of our
medical services, ultimate beneficiary of which is the local patient.
Categories of medical officers (doctors), whose services are available

1] Grade medical officers with up to 10 years experience, many doctors have

experience in specific fields such as anaesthesia, emergency and accident service,
laboratory medicine, forensic medicine, radiology, community health etc. The
doctors of this category may be employed as house officers or senior house officers.
2] Doctors with up to 10 years experience, processing Post Graduate Diplomas
awarded by the PGIM [ Diploma in Family Medicine, Diploma in Child Health, MSc
Community Medicine, Diploma in Pathology, Diploma in Transfusion Medicine,
Certificate of Competence in Anaesthesia, Diploma in Legal Medicine, Diploma in
Venereology, Diploma in Tuberculosis and Chest Disease, Diploma in Microbiology,
Diploma in Reproductive Health, Diploma in Psychiatry, MSc Medical Administration
etc], who may be placed as senior house officers.

3] Senior Registrars with post graduate training and MD/MS from the PGIM, who are
waiting for one year post doctoral training at the overseas centres of excellence.
MD/MS programmes are conducted in the fields of Anaesthesiology, Community
Medicine(by research), Oncology, Dermatology, Forensic Medicine, General
Medicine, Cardiology, Neurology, Endocrinology, Gastroenterology, General
Paediatrics, Neonatology, Paediatric Nephrology, Paediatric Neurology, Paediatric
Intensive care, Microbiology, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Pathology, Haematology,
Psychiatry, Radiology, Venereology, Orthopaedic Surgery, Paediatric Surgery, Plastic
Surgery, Thoracic Surgery, Transplant surgery, Vascular Surgery, Genito-Urinary
Surgery, Gastro-intestinal Surgery, Otolaryngology, Ophthalmology, Transfusion
Medicine, Medical Administration etc. These doctors may be considered for the
senior registrar and specialist registrar positions at reputed centres, where adequate
supervision is available.
4] Consultants [Specialists with MD/MS and other recognized international post
graduate qualifications in the fields as indicated under category 3.]

This document is prepared for the purposes of introducing medical service system in
Sri Lanka to the overseas agencies who are interested in obtaining services of our
doctors. FPCC is happy to provide any further information regarding this matter.