Featured Doctor

RANDENIKUMARA, Dr Sankha

Sri Lanka - The Spice Route Chair

Dr Sankha Randenikumara is the chair of The Spice Route, Young Doctors’ Movement of the WONCA South Asia region and a council member of the Rural WONCA.

What work do you do now?

Currently I work as an administrator of a secondary care hospital in state sector, who is responsible for planning and quality management. I do my family practice in the evening hours. In addition to being an active member of the College of General Practitioners of Sri Lanka, I’m highly involved with the Sri Lanka Medical Association (SLMA) as a Council member. I’m also the Secretary of the Palliative and End of Life Care Task Force of the SLMA since its inception, which is engaged in various activities to develop palliative medicine, which is relatively a new field to Sri Lanka. I have an enthusiastic bunch of colleagues in the Spice Route Movement of Sri Lanka and we have initiated CPD activities and research work in which young family doctors could get actively involved.

Other interesting things you have done?

From year 2014 to 2018 I was working as the in-charge physician of a rural Primary Care Unit in the Southern Sri Lanka which was a memorable period. The small team headed by me could upgrade our hospital to one of the best model primary care units in Sri Lanka within a brief period by implementing principles of Family Medicine. This achievement brought me the opportunity to join the committee appointed by the Health Ministry of Sri Lanka to formulate a proposal for reorganization of primary healthcare in Sri Lanka. Despite being the youngest member of the committee, I could contribute in a significant manner to this national process and now this proposal is in action as a World Bank funded project.

I have a strong interest in Archaeology from my childhood. I initiated postgraduate studies in Archaeology just after my graduation as a doctor and still continuing. Architecture of ancient hospitals and paleo-diet have been my research interests so far.

What do you hope to achieve in being the Chair of the Spice Route?

The Spice Route has now well-established as a young doctors’ movement, thanks to my predecessors’ contributions. I was recently elected as the Chair and these days we are getting ready for the upcoming WONCA South Asia Regional Conference held at Lahore, Pakistan.

I hope to make the Spice Route more active and involved, within the next two years’ period. One of the most important aspects I wish to address is research, which I consider as an essential component in a doctor’s life. I also hope to create more opportunities to develop fellowship and share our professional experiences as young family doctors. I’m pretty confident that I could achieve my targets even though they’re challenging, because I have a keen team consisted of Spice Route leads of South Asian countries and inspiring WONCA seniors with me.

Your interests at work and privately?

Rural practice has been my passion at all times. NCDs, palliative care and environmental health are some other areas in which I am interested.

In my spare-time I travel to places of historical interest. I love reading from my childhood and still find time somehow for that. Nature has fascinated me always and birding is one of my favorite leisure activities. I’m also engaged in archaeological surveys and excavations as a hobby as well as a part of my studies.