Sri Lanka loses 10 percent of its doctors amid exodus after economic crisis

Lahiru Prabodha Gamage, a 35-year-old Sri Lankan doctor, at work in the UK, where he immigrated in 2023 amid an economic crisis at home. Nearly 10 percent of Sri Lanka's doctors have left the country in the past two years [Courtesy of Lahiru Prabodha Gamage]

Colombo, Sri Lanka – The bullying from a senior health official was bad enough. A sense of betrayal by government authorities during COVID-19 made it worse. But the economic crisis that pummelled Sri Lanka in the wake of the pandemic was the breaking point for Lahiru Prabodha Gamage.

The 35-year-old Sri Lankan doctor left Sri Lanka in January 2023 to take up a job in the United Kingdom, after working in a government hospital in the remote town of Hatton, 120km (75 miles) east of the capital Colombo, for six years. He is now a senior house officer for Britain’s National Health Service (NHS).