Dr. Channa Perera, the JMO at several leading hospitals in the Colombo district, is planning to retire prematurely due to intimidations he is facing, reports said.
Dr. Perera has issued the medical reports relating to the death of a patient at the mental hospital at Angoda at the hands of its staff on 25 July.
Many in the health sector have been pressurizing him, with doctors at the hospital forcing the management against him, said hospital sources.
The staff under Dr. Perera is being replaced as well.
A female nursing officer who works under him at Colombo East Hospital has been substituted with a junior worker, who has been entrusted with the documents Dr. Perera is supposed to submit to courts.
In a previous case in point, JMO Dr. Ananda Samarasekara was accused in the Wasim Thajudeen murder case over missing skeletal remains.
Similarly, an attempt is being suspected to destroy evidence in the mental patient’s killing, it is alleged.
Dr. Perera has lodged a complaint against that with Mulleriyawa police and also informed the magistrate’s courts in Colombo and Kaduwela.
There is another complaint over the disappearance of a laptop from the mental hospital, which contained the case evidence.
At that hospital too, the staff given to Dr. Perera has been substituted.
As a result of all these intimidations, he has handed over retirement documents to the Health Ministry with around seven years of his service remaining.
