Poor support to Karu Jayasuriya by SL airport
Jul 16, 2016
Hon speaker of parliament mr Karu Jayasuriya was admitted to a private hospital for treatment on 9 July and the team of doctors treating him after 4 days of treatment advised him to travel to Singapore for further tests as little progress was made.
The hospital then assisted in contacting the hospital in Singapore where further management could be done.
Flights were booked for travel for Hon speaker and his daughter who is a medical professional with over 20 year experience and currently working in the World health organization through Emirates holidays on EK 348 due to depart Colombo at 3pm on 12 July.
The need for wheelchair was explained and also inquiries were made from Emirates holidays as to the availability of oxygen on the flight. The information given was that oxygen is available in the emergency kit. The inquiry was made as to the availability of oxygen on a precautionary measure only and even during the hospital treatment he never received oxygen. When the booking was done there was no information given by Emirates holidays on the need of a medical clearance certificate by discharging hospital.
The hon speaker came to the airline by wheelchair and then walked to his allocated seat on first class when an airline personnel inquired as to a medical clearance certificate. The discharge summary from hospital was given but was not accepted and then discussion ensued on the issue and the airline decided to contact their US health centre of Emirates airlines. The speakers daughter informed them that it was possible to get an immediate clearance certificate from the discharging hospital within 10 minutes which was not accepted. By the officer of Emirates handling the matter.
The officer (who has no medical background ) then proceeded to fill in the questionnaire by himself using the discharge summary and asked a few questions from his daughter and then sent the information to their US office.
The Sri Lankan airport has a medical desk and a medical officer who could have easily issued the certificate. But they were never considered. They then informed after about 20 minutes that their "US" desk had claimed the hon speaker is not fit to fly based on the form submitted by the officer of Emirates.
Whilst the discussion was going on the luggage had already been offloaded by airline staff without any reference.
Whilst acknowledging the rules of the airlines questions remain in the following areas:
(1) why was the need for medical clearance never informed by Emirates when the request for wheelchair and oxygen was made?
(2) why was the offer of obtaining the required clearance by the discharging hospital refused by the officer especially When the process would have taken less than 10 minutes?
(3) why was the doctor at the airport never consulted to obtain the required clearance?
(4) how can a officer of the airline look at a medical discharge summary and fill in details of medical history? The form was never shown to the daughter who herself is a qualified Doctor
(5) why were the luggage offloaded before conclusive discussions were finalized?
The arrogance of the staff was clearly visible and this delay in travel required the hon speaker to be in negombo Until the next flight to Singapore was boarded at 1am requiring approximately 10 hour waiting time and the inconvenience to all including the medical personnel in Singapore who had made special arrangements for this visit. The next flight to Singapore was the Singapore airlines flight due to leave Colombo at 0155h which was caused a 9 hour waiting time. As he was not in a position to return to Colombo he stayed at a nearby hotel for a period of over 8 hours until he boarded the Singapore airlines flight.
