Induction Speech of Dr Shanti Dalpatadu, the 23rd President of the College of Medical
Administrators of Sri-Lanka on the 18th day of March 2016 at Hotel Kingsbury Colombo
The Chief Guest, Hon D M Swaminathan, Minister of Prison Reforms, Rehabilitation,
Resettlement and Hindu Religious Affairs
The Guest of Honour Dr George Fernando, Founder President and Patron of the College of
Medical Administrators of Sri Lanka
Dr Jayasundara Bandara, immediate past President of the college,
Dr Neelamani Hewageegana, the President – Elect,
Dr Sudath Dharmaratne, the Secretary of the College of Medical Administrators of Sri Lanka
Dr Rukshan Bellana, assistant treasurer
Past Presidents of the College
Fellows of the College
The Council members and members of the College,
Distinguished invitees / Ladies and gentleman,
As I take over the responsibility of guiding the affairs of the College of Medical Administrators
of Sri Lanka, first of all let me thank those of you who had placed trust and faith in me and
elected me to be the 23rd President of this prestigious college.
Being associated with the college from its inception, as the founder secretary and having held
numerous council posts of this college, indeed it is a great honour for me to be your President.
Looking back over the years, this college has grown from strength to strength, with a humble
beginning with only 46 founder members, now the college, boasts having over two hundred
members.
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In my short induction speech, which will be quite different to what you have listened to over
the years, I will first speak of the formation of this College and next keeping with the theme for
this year “Building a Culture of Excellence in Medical Administration” will try to identify those
great Medical Administrators over the past 40 years, whom we have come across or have
worked with or have heard of being mentioned by many as those who were responsible for the
numerous health sector achievements, which are on par with the developed nations. It may
also serve as a fitting tribute to these greats of yesteryear.
Further, this is also intended to be a lesson for the present and future generations of Medical
Administrators, who are present here today. The value of identifying the role models as we did
in the past and then striving to be excellent Medical Administrators by learning and adopting
those skills, traits and characteristics of those whom they could look up to as excellent medical
administrators will definitely be rewarding.
Getting back to the formation of this college, I thought as one of the few members who have
the institutional memory on the formation of this college to place on record how it all began for
the benefit of those who joined us recently and for those who will be joining this prestigious
college in the future.
It was about 24years ago in 1992; the thought of formation of the college came into our minds.
Up to this time, most of the Medical administrator’s affairs were looked after including the
professional development by the Association of Medical Administrators which was formed in
1974.But it so happened Government Medical Officers Association at that time insisted that we
cannot be in two organizations for trade union matters and that we should dissolve the
Association of Medical Administrators and be members of only one association.
At that point, few of us including our founder President Dr George Fernando, Late Dr Bernard
Randeniya President of AMA, Dr Reggie Perera, Late Dr Lalith Mendis, Dr Sanath Guneskera and
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few others along with me, decided we should set up the College of Medical Administrators with
the following objectives
a. To guide the health development in Sri Lanka
b. To assist in the implementation of the national health policy
c. To promote postgraduate studies in the field of Medical Administration
e. To promote and foster professional advancement of Medical Administration
d.
To regularly review the status of Medical Administration in the country, and
analyze problems in the field to guide the Ministry of Health (and the private
sector) inclusive of human resource development and resource mobilization
in this field.
e.
To foster fellowship among the professionals engaged in the field of Medical
Administration.
f.
To publish a journal of professional Medical Administration
It was a daunting task, as there were no precedents for us to look into, as there were no
Colleges similar to our interests in Sri Lanka, to see how we should set about it. Here I must
mention the contribution made by Dr Lalith Mendis who was responsible for designing the
mace you see in front of you, the cloak and the college logo. We thought we should make this
the Royal College of Professional medical colleges, hence the colour Blue and Gold and the logo
with the crown, snake and the sword to depict health.
Lalith who was few years senior to me when we were at school was a great caricature as well as
a line drawing artist who did the cartoon sketches for the Royal Thomian souvenir, and then
continued doing this for the Medical Students Union journals and souvenirs etc
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There was severe opposition from senior members of the College of Community Physicians, to
our idea of forming this college as they thought there should not be a separate specialty of
medical administration but that it should be a sub specialty of Community Medicine,
But a few of us who were also Board Certified Consultants in Community Medicine were
convinced it should be a different specialty and decided to go ahead with the formation of the
college. Thus the dissolution of the Association of Medical Administrators paved the way for the
establishment of the College of Medical Administrators of Sri Lanka (CMASL) in December 1992,
which was set up by a group of 46 Medical Administrators, for the professional development of
medical administrators, dissociating themselves from trade union matters.
During this time there were only a few Colleges of Medical administrators in Hong Kong and
Europe but except for Royal Australian College of Medical Administrators they were not
associated with conducting of post graduate courses.
The first general meeting of the council was held on 12th December 1992, where following were
elected to be the office bearers and council members of the first Council
President: Dr. George Fernando
President Elect: Dr Reggie Perera
Vice President: Dr.Susantha de Silva
Secretary: Dr.K.C.S.Dalpatadu
Treasurer: Dr. Punsiri Fernando
Editor: Dr. Lalith Mendis
Committee Members:
Dr. P.Sivaraja
Dr. Nihal Jayathilake
Dr. D.A.K. Gunesekera
Dr. H.M.Fernando
Dr. B.F.S.Samaranayake
The first Scientific session of the College was conducted on 4th December 1993.One of the main
objectives of the College was to establish, post graduate courses in Medical Administration in
order to establish our field of specialty as a separate entity.
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The College through the Post Graduate Institute of Medicine (PGIM) initiated action for
establishment of a Board of Study in Medical Administration at PGIM in 1992. The First Board of
Study was held in April 1994, was chaired by Dr. Reggie Perera, and I was its first secretary.
College played a major role in establishing a Master’s Degree and a Doctoral Degree in Medical
Administration
With the assistance of Prof.T.J. Ramiah, a WHO Consultant working with the Management
Development & Planning Unit of the Ministry of Health, we undertook a needs assessment and
with a group of senior medical administrators developed a curriculum for a Master of Science
and MD degree in Medical Administration.
The first batch of 31 was recruited to commence the MSc Medical Administration course in
1995. Since then altogether 16 training programmes have been completed up to 2015 and a
total of 224 have successfully completed the training and has been awarded the Master’s
degree in Medical Administration.
The MD programme in Medical Administration commenced in 2002. 6 programmes of MD part I
and II had been completed up to end of 2015.The No of Trainees who have completed MD Part
2 training is 31.The No of Board certified consultants is 24 as of end of 2015.Looking at these
achievements, I’m convinced that our decision was correct.
In fact, last few years we had over hundred medical officers applying for the selection
examination for twenty places which is now increased to 25. From next year selection
examination for the MSc Medical Administration course at the PGIM, have been revised it will
be in two stages. Stage 1- Two theory papers on general management and management of
health services. Stage 2 – Oral Examination structured to assess personality and attitude for
Persons who have passed paper 1 and paper 2. Accordingly, only those who are really looking
up to be good Medical Administrators will get selected.
In the 21st year after establishing the College in recognition of the role they played for all those
surviving members of this group who had not been awarded fellowships, were made fellows of
the college
Also I must mention we are now a member of the world federation of Medical managers, other
members being Australia, Canada, USA, UK, South Africa, Hong Kong, Italy, Netherlands and
Iran.
Getting back to my main theme; Medical administrators of Sri Lanka are a unique species.
Unique in the sense that from the time government health services was started in 1858, in Sri
Lanka unlike in other countries, leadership to the health services of this country has been given
by medical persons and no one else.
In1858, an independent Civil Medical Department was created by removing military control.
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First Medical administrator was Dr Christopher Elliot, who was appointed in 1858 as the
Principle Civil Medical Officer
In 1925, the designation of the Principal Civil Medical Officer and Inspector General of Hospitals
was changed to that of Director of Medical and Sanitary Services (DMS). This became Director
of Health Services later (DHS).

The first Sri Lankan, to be appointed as the Director of Health services was
Dr.C.Chellpah. Since then we had 13 Medical administrators holding the post of Director
of Health services (DHSs) from 1925 they were;
o Dr. C. Chellappa
o Dr. S.D. Gunasekara
o Dr. W.G. Wickramasinghe
o Dr. D.L.J. Kahawita
o Dr. Barnie Gunasekara
o Dr. W.A. Karunarathne
o Dr. V.T.H. Gunarathne
o Prof. K. Rajasooriya
o Dr. F.P. Wickramasinghe
o Dr. L.B.P. Gunawardena
o Dr. Jayasundara
o Dr. H.A. Jesudasan
o Dr. Malinga Fernando
During the time of Dr.Malinga Fernando in 1983, the designation changed from Director of
Health Services (DHS) to Director General of Health Services DGHS

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DGHSs from 1983 onwards they were;
o Dr. Malinga Fernando
o Dr. C.D. Herath
o Dr. Joe Fernando
o Dr. George Fernando
o Dr. Reggie Perera
o Dr. V. Jeganathan
o Dr. A.M.L. Beligaswatta
o Dr. H.A.P. Kahandaliyange
o Dr. Ajith Mendis
o Dr. Palith Mahipala
Up to now we have had 10 holding the post of Director General of Health Services. Looking at
lists of DHSs and DGHSs shows that we have had no female heading the department. It is hoped
that we will have one in the near future.
Achievements we have made are well known with very low capita health expenditure. We have
been providing excellent services as seen by the health and health performance indicators
which are comparable with developed nations.
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For this year’s theme I selected “Building a culture of excellence in Medical administration”
I thought of choosing this theme so a story could be narrated referring to our greats of the 20th
century who are familiar to us and have known to be great personalities by our seniors.
To find out these role models or excellent medical administrators we did a research study
Through this we wanted to show, as well as learn how the traits and styles of these great
medical administrators in various aspects of medical administration enabled us to have one of
the best health services in the region with health indices and health performances on par with
those of the developed nations
The study was
To find out “Retired Medical Administrator’s perception of Excellent Medical Administrators,
amongst their predecessors, contemporaries and subordinates”
With the objectives to
•
To determine the perception of retired senior medical administrators on the leadership
and management qualities of their predecessors, contemporaries and subordinates
•
To assess the leadership styles of predecessors, contemporaries and subordinates
based on identified leadership qualities and attributes
•
To Identify the Excellent Medical Administrators of the past and determine the
leadership qualities and styles of management that made them to be perceived as
great leaders
How did we do it?
Study Population:
We looked at All retired senior medical administrators,
 who are full members of CMASL
 currently residing in Sri-Lanka
 listed in the membership directory of 2016.
The total population was categorized based on their era of service.
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•
Medical administrators who have retired before 1995
•
Medical administrators who have retired during 1996-2004
•
Medical administrators who have retired during 2005-2009
•
Medical administrators who have retired during 2010 – 2015
Decided to use a Systematic stratified sample
Accordingly, a random sample of 10 was selected from each category based on
the category specific male to female ratio, making a grand total of 40.
Survey Instruments and techniques
Key Informant Interviews were conducted using a structured interviewer guide,
using the telephone as the communication channel. All the telephone
conversations were recorded with the permission of the informant.
Identical questions were asked from all four categories they were
1. Name 3 predecessors’/3 peer’s contemporaries/3 subordinates whom they thought were
excellent Medical Administrators
2. Three good qualities each one possessed.
3. To which leadership style does this person fit
4. Anecdotal remarks-1/2 incidents
Distribution of respondents by gender
22%, (9)
Female
Male
78%, (31)
There were 31 (78) males and 9 (22)females
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We had to oversample 4thcategory as we could not get the required no from the 1st and the 3rd
category.
Posts held at the time of retirement. RDHS & PDHS were few in no as most of them had joined
the ministry prior to retirement.
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Most No of perceived role models with a frequency of nine or above were very few.
There were a large number of persons who were named by one or two respondents. These may
be the persons with whom they had worked closely and felt they were good for personal
reasons, but not perceived the same way as good role models by most others.
In fact, some of them admitted that to call someone excellent was a difficult choice, as they
may be good but not excellent, and some could not readily name three persons from each
category.
Perception of top most role model
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From the study the nine names which were frequently mentioned were as above.
None of the Lady Medical Administrators were able to come up as role models.
Also it is interesting to note that even though one may be a secretary or DGHS or a DDG unless
you leave a mark you may not be recognized as a role model as you may observe even a
Director has been perceived as a role model above all of them.
Looking at the eras, there were four of them who had retired before 1995
Three between 1995-2004
Two 2005-2009
None after 2010
Which indicates that there is a dearth of role models during the last two decades.
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Perceived leadership style of top most role models were
Also it was difficult for some to categorically say the person displayed one style. So they have
attributed two or more styles for one person
From above it appears that the most mentioned styles were Visionary and Task oriented. This
may be due to them having to manage a large work force and ensure delivery of an efficient
and effective health service
Results of this study, which is the perception of retired senior medical administrators during the
past four decades clearly identifies one great personality who has stood tall among all our
administrators as a role model for all of us.
Thought to be a Charismatic, Visionary task oriented and people friendly all in one rare
personality
He is none other than Dr Joe Fernando our Eldest Surviving Medical administrator who is here
among us today with whom I had the privilege of working as a young medical officer when I was
the MOH at Unawatuna way back in 1974 and finally as a Director in the ministry and selected
by him to be the deputy director general of health services planning prior to his retirement in
1994.
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Please show your appreciation to this Great Personality by giving a round of applause.
Hon Minister of Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine appointed an advisory committee to
his ministry last month for a period of three years for guidance, direction and assistance for
development of the health sector in Sri Lanka. This committee has 8 retired Medical
Administrators and it is pertinent to note that six of the role models identified have been
appointed to this committee
They are:
Dr Joe Fernando
Dr.George Fernando
Dr Reggie Perera
Dr. Shanti Dalpatadu
Dr.AthulaKahandaliyanage
And Dr.Susantha de Silva
Who is an example of a role model? What Qualities do we see in them?
A Disciplined person
Personality ever smiling, tall and up right
Punctuality
Caring
Competent
Well Dressed
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Trustworthy
Listening
Firm when necessary
Appreciating acknowledging
Balance judgment
Supportive when required
Capable of Delegating responsibility and authority as and when required
Apolitical
Were these Qualities perceived by the retirees in the Role models? they identified
Yes to a great extend as the results Show
During the past four decades we have heard of various theories of Leadership. When we were
doing the MD community Medicine way back in early eighties we were told that there were
only three types of leaders Autocratic(Do as I say), Democratic(Lets do it together) and laissezfaire (Do whatever you want). Since then we have come across various ways of looking at
leadership, all of these, more or less. applying more to the private sector in the western
hemisphere. Some of them are, Traits Theories of Leadership, Behavioral theories of leadership
Feidler Contingency Model, Hersey and Blanchards Situational leadership theory, Path Goal
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theory etc. But medical Administrators are managing public services and public goods for the
benefit of our people and not for profit. Hence, we need to adopt a style that fits well for
managing one of the largest public sector organizations in the country and not blindly follow or
train our medical administrators on leadership theories and styles that are best suited for
private sector in other developed countries.
Of all the recent literature on leadership I felt Jim Collins model of hierarchy of level 5
leadership best illustrates what a Medical Administrator should strive for in order to provide an
efficient and effective health services for all Sri Lankan citizens. The levels mention in this
model are,
5
4
3
2
1
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Level 5
Executiv
es
Self
Actualizatio
n
Effective Leader
Esteem
Competent Manager
Societal
Contributing team member
Safety
High capable individual
Basic
1. High capable individual – makes productive contributions through talent, knowledge,
skills, and good work habits.(Basic Need Physiological needs: Developing competencies
in administration) ( from Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs)
2. Contributing team member – contributes individual capabilities to the achievement of
group objectives in a group setting. Working in groups and achieving common
goals(Safety Needs) Safety in numbers and working together
3. Competent manager – organizes people and resources toward the effective and
efficient pursuit of predetermined objectives.(Societal needs)Meeting Community needs
4. Effective leader – catalyzes commitments and compelling vision, stimulating higher
performance standards.(Esteem Needs positive self-image and respect and recognition)
5. Level 5 executive – builds enduring greatness through a paradoxical blend of personal
humility and professional will. (Self-actualization personal fulfillment growth and
development)
This is what I meant by saying building a culture, that is to create a behavioural change
in young administrators and make them aspire to be excellent Medical Administrators.
I will make use of this opportunity to give you all a glimpse of what we have planned for this
year.

There will be two special events

The International Medical Leaders forum organized by the world Federation of Medical
managers, hosted by us together with SLMA as a pre congress event during the 129th
annual sessions of SLMA on 23rd July 2016

The other is the 9th Asia Pacific Action Alliance on Human Resource for Health ( AAAH)
conference 2016 jointly hosted by us and the Ministry of Health on 24 th to 28thOctober
2016. The theme of this event will be Global Human Resources for Health strategies
2030: from strategy to implementation.

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We will also be conducting three workshops
based on the Theme; Towards a Culture of Excellence in Medical administration






Interactive Workshop for Young Medical Administrators & MD Trainees with Role
models of yester year
Work shop for leadership development for Young Medical Administrators & MD
Trainees
Work shop Striving for excellence in medical administration road map to overcome
future Challenges
We will have an Orientation session on communication awareness organized by the
President of the World Federation of toast Masters
followed by 11weeks training programme on speech craft for selected MD trainees
There will be two joint seminars, one with SLMA management committee on Monitoring
of Health System Performance for both government & private sector
and the other with the College of Surgeons. On Surgical Care: Needs, Demands and
expectations of patients

This year we will have quarterly meetings with DGHS

We will assist the ministry in updating and revising of the set of management manuals
published in 1995

Usual Members outing, council outings regional meetings will also take place as well as
bi monthly Forum for MD trainees

Orientation course for medical officer’s in medical administration in October/November

Annual session will be conducted along with the Malinga Fernando Oration in
November/December

Publication of two volumes of the journal

The AGM in January as per the revised constitution.
Before I conclude , Although the Secretary will be making the formal vote of thanks I wish to
thank my two registrars in medical Administration Dr Upuli Wijemanne and Dr Pradeep
Ratnasekare, who did the survey and handed over the data base so that I could use some of the
results for this speech. Also to our Statistician Sarasi Amarasinghe who entered the files to a
Stata data base and gave me the preliminary results and to Puwenesh again from my institution
for providing some of the back ground material for this address. Also to our Efficient secretary
Dr Sudath Dharmaratne as he will not be thanking himself and the working group specially Dr
Bellana and Dr Suranga Dolamulla and our MD and MSc trainees for the excellent execution of
the plan for conducting this induction ceremony entrusted to them.
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It is my also my duty to thank Hon Swaminathan my good friend and class mate for last sixty
years for readily accepting my invitation to be my Chief guest.
and of course my thanks to Dr George Fernando todays guest of honour who has always
supported and guided me like one of his younger brothers to achieve what I have achieved and
to Ingrid.
Finally, for all those here today my sincere thanks for the honour bestowed on me by your
presence here today.
Thank You
Dr Shanti Dalpatadu,
President of the College of Medical Administrators of Sri-Lanka
18th day of March 2016
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