Professional aberration is hitting a new low nowadays. Hardly has there been any profession that can now maintain immunity to this general decline in standard. But more than most other professions, the medical one has been making screaming headlines of late because of a series of undesirable developments. Impostors donning the mantle of specialist physicians have either been running private hospitals or treating patients. Then there are blood bank scams. These are incidents strong enough to erode confidence in the country's healthcare system. Yet these developments pale before the collective failure to maintain the high standard of medical profession.
Few doctors today command respect. People in general express their no-confidence in the medical profession largely because they think patients are not given the care they deserve. In extreme cases, therefore, particularly when the aggrieved near and dear ones sense their patient has become a victim to wrong treatment or neglect, physical aggression is let loose either on the doctor concerned or the health facility. Mistrust and commercialism taken to their extreme in a profession like this are bound to explode in angry outbursts.
This has happened at a private health clinic in Rajshahi and at the Bangladesh Institute of Research and Rehabilitation for Diabetes and Endocrine and Metabolic Disorders (BIRDEM). Physicians at the Rajshahi Medical College along with all other private and public health facilities in Rajshahi observed a two-day strike in protest against sending a doctor to jail on a murder charge. The doctor was implicated because a businessman with a fractured leg died on the operation table in less than half an hour.
At the BIRDEM, three doctors were assaulted following the death of a patient. The assaulters complained that the physicians' neglect was responsible for the patient's death. In this case a high ranking police official was involved in the assault and until he was not withdrawn the physicians at the BIRDEM did not end their wildcat strike. In both cases though, lack of treatment during the strike was allegedly the cause of at least one death each.
Admittedly, not all patients have relatives holding high ranks in the police or government services. Their disappointment, anger and murderous mood are kept in check. The level of dissatisfaction though is quite high. Responsible for this are two things -first poor management and then commercialisation of the profession. How much time the physicians at the public hospitals give to patients? They spend most of their time at their chambers seeing patients or attending to on-call operations at designated private clinics. The job at the government hospitals is just a formality, a signboard they use for enhancing their reputation.
When seniors in the profession give in to such professional aberration, the management of affairs at public hospitals becomes an impossible proposition. The juniors just take advantage of this situation. That doctors would think of their profession sacrosanct without taking the responsibility is unreasonable. If they give hundred per cent into the profession, patients can feel and others around know about it. Because they are driven by an ulterior motive other than care for patients, they are held low in esteem and hence some people dare settle the score physically.
It surely is a sad day for Bangladesh. True, their salary is low compared to their counterparts in a few neighbouring countries. But then a balance between private practice and the job for which a doctor is recruited should be struck. They must not bring down their own image and let others the opportunity to question their professional integrity.
Medical profession fails to do justice to itself
Neil Ray | Published: April 21, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00
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