The Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) never ceases to make news -albeit mostly for wrong reasons. The latest one concerns treatment of a patient by someone who has no business doing so. The result is that the patient died following the wrong man's wrong intervention. According to some reports, the youth who attended the patient is a sweeper. Other reports say he is a ward boy and at least one report holds that he is an outsider, perhaps a helper of an ambulance driver.
Now this is intriguing. How can a man of either of these standings dare administer an injection into the nebuliser or go for any such medical intervention in an emergency in a ward of the country's largest hospital? Reports are inconclusive. There is a reference to the initiative he took at the request of a nurse. But about one thing there is no doubt that the patient had breathing problem at that time. Doctors and nurses did not respond to the requests of the deceased patient's relatives to attend to him.
Even then it should not prompt some non-professional to come forward with the kind of medical help requiring special knowledge and expertise. If he is a ward boy or a sweeper, there is valid reason for him to stay there but if he is an outsider, his presence is undesirable -least of all his naivety with medical care he feigned to give.
Now the question is, how can such things happen in the premier hospital of the country? In an emergency like this doctors and nurses should be at hand. But none cared about the patient struggling to breathe. Why? Is the hospital understaffed? Or, this is representative of medical attention provided by all public hospitals in general! In many private hospitals, the affairs are still more deplorable. Impersonation by ludicrously ill-educated or even illiterate people as experienced medical consultants has been detected by vigilant teams in a number of cases. At least in one such case, a man was able to run second time his fake clinic and diagnostic business on his release from jail. He suffered the jail term for his first such offence. For him old habits really died hard.
Developments like these simply erode confidence in people about the healthcare system in the country. After all, people seek medical care when they most need it. But if hospitals turn out to be the cause of aggravation of their ailment, sufferings and even of death, the news is too alarming and disconcerting for patients, their near and dear ones and the public. The profession of medical practice has been commercialised beyond limit. Medical practitioners are more focused to their private practice and therefore hardly concentrate on treatment of patients in hospitals.
Apart from a brief time when senior doctors are on their round or at the operation table, they are hardly available to attend a critical patient. By the time the next day's round is scheduled, such patients have to depend mostly on junior doctors. This is one of the reasons for aggravation of condition of a patient, leading even to death.
The DMCH should prove that its administration is strong enough to identify the person/persons whose negligence led to the untimely death of the patient from Keraniganj. The hospital has more problems than it can attend to. Only a couple of days ago, a child was lifted from there. This proves the presence of outsiders and strangers who were not supposed to be in the hospital.
Who is in charge of DMCH?
Neil Ray | Published: September 26, 2016 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00
Share if you like