Hospital in ruins

Most of the FFs, numbering more than 175,000, are above 50 years of age, and in need of medical attention. The setting up of the hospital under the aegis of the Muktijoddah Kalyan Trust was a commendable step. It functioned smoothly in the first three years and was leased out to a private medical college in 1994, and finally to another private organisation three years later. The decision to rely on private management didn't yield any result as proven by the fact that the hospital ceased to function six years ago.

In a resource-poor country where setting up a medicare unit is a difficult proposition, we have managed to virtually spoil something that was on the ground and flagged off.

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There are allegations that some elements within the Ministry of Liberation War Affairs are scuttling the hospital's re-emergence. Are we to believe there are people who could subvert even a move as positive as the reopening of a hospital, that too for the FFs? However, this is not the first time we are hearing about costly equipment lying idle and rusting through disuse.

Mismanagement has already caused loss of valuable time. And, there is just one solution that the government must consider in all seriousness immediate reopening of the hospital under a professionally run and thoroughly dependable management.