Does the govt know?

Sadly the reality of the situation is not much different in other parts of the country. In the last one week itself, there have been more than one report in The Daily Star about despicable state of medical care in the small towns. In one of them from Barisal, it was said that most of the private clinics in the town have been operating illegally since only 8 out 39 diagnostic and pathological laboratories have proper licence. And the less said about the equipment, hygiene and proper treatment, the better. Why just the private ones, as it's been reported in another news item, corruption and malpractice by a section of doctors, nurses and employees almost compel the patients to leave for their residences before complete recovery from Rangpur Medical College Hospital.

Though the government makes allocations for medicines, the patients either have to buy them from outside or are given spurious, cheap medicines by the authorities. We are simply astonished to see that such inadequacies and malpractice are continuing despite the government's repeated pledge to provide proper, affordable medicare to all citizens. Is the government at all aware of what is actually going on at the clinics and hospitals outside Dhaka in the name of medical treatment? Is there any mechanism at all to constantly monitor the way these clinics and hospitals are run? If so, what actions have been taken in this respect? We want to know. Letting a patient die for lack of electricity during an operation is simply unacceptable. We cannot and should not allow this to happen ever again.

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