By Consultant Judicial Medical Officer (JMO) Dr. Ruhul Haq, who defied the suspension imposed by the Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC), has been suspended on compulsory leave. The controversial medical officer has always protested his innocence and maintained that only a higher court of law could suspend his duties.
Dr. Ruhul Haq has faced criticism for his controversial and contradictory postmortem reports in cases such as the death of Dinesh Schaffter, the death of a three-year-old child following kidney surgery at Lady Ridgeway Hospital, the death of a five-year-old girl at a private hospital in Colombo in 2013, and a worker’s death due to suspected food poisoning at the Free Trade Zone (FTZ) in 2014.
As a result, the JMO was initially suspended for eight months, starting from December 20, 2022. The suspension was supposed to end on August 20, 2023. However, despite the suspension, he has continued to perform significant postmortems over the past six months.
Dr. Haq has said that there are malicious forces preventing him from becoming the Chief Medical Officer. He has also accused the SLMC of bias against him.
The issue here is the delay of the health authorities in getting to the bottom of the issue and allowing the allegations to drag on for such a long time.
Here are some of the things that Dr. Haq might do next:
- He could challenge the suspension in court.
- He could file a complaint against the SLMC with the Medical Council of Sri Lanka.
- He could resign from his position as JMO.
