Playing foul with the patient's diet!

This is a kind of situation that cannot be explained away in terms of fund constraints. Whether the food allowance is sufficient or not isn't the issue here -- several patients might be actually paying for their diet -- what's pertinent is the lack of honesty in the service. A nexus between the buyers and suppliers has created a situation in which all the rotten stuff is being passed off as food for the patient. It is in fact a clear case of theft leading to the patients being deprived of good diet.

The dishonest elements are committing a crime whose culpability is hard to countenance. Supplying substandard food is in itself an offence, and it becomes doubly so when patients are made to ingest it. Rotten and adulterated foods can cause enough harm to people in a sound state of health, so it hardly needs any elaboration what they can do to ailing people. In fact, cure and convalescence of patients depend to a great extent on hygienic and nutritious foods.

Tap here to add The Daily Star as a trusted source

The DMCH management cannot avoid the responsibility of what is going on inside the hospital. It has to ensure health and hygiene standards. To tell the truth, the findings of the mobile court must not have come as a big surprise to the management itself.

All they need to do now is to act.

The DMCH is our number one public sector medicare provider. If hygiene standards are flouted so brazenly in this hospital, we shudder to think what is the situation in other public hospitals. The health ministry should perhaps intervene to get a move on in this area.