Corruption afflicts hospitals

Since the health sector as a whole is very much among the most corruption-ridden sectors of the country, it is not surprising that corruption is rampant in the public hospitals across the country including the city's Suhrawardy Hospital, Dhaka Medical College Hospital or Mitford Hospital. According to reports published in the newspapers, these hospitals have earned a reputation of harassing patients who come for treatment of various ailments. Soon after their arrival at the hospital, patients fall prey to touts, cheats and a section of the unscrupulous hospital staff. Some organised groups start trying to convince the relatives of the patients to transfer them to some private clinics. This is a common sight in almost all public hospitals in the country, because these institutions are mired in mismanagement, irregularities and anomalies. However, the patients, who get admitted to public hospitals, hardly get proper medical treatment in these hospitals, as in many cases medicines meant for the patients are smuggled out and the doctors and nurses seldom pay enough attention to the ailing people under their charge. It is due to these reasons that the helpless poor patients who are unable to meet the high cost of treatment in private clinics and hospitals come to the public hospitals only to be neglected, deceived and disappointed. The government allocation for people's healthcare in our country is perhaps the lowest in the world. Even then, whatever is allocated is not properly spent for the medical care due to corruption and mismanagement. This trend must be stopped. Government must take stern action to stop corruption in the hospitals to ensure better medical services to the ailing people, as getting medical care is the basic rights of the citizens and that must be ensured by the government. Mohammed Jashim Uddin 682, Purana Paltan, Dhaka-1000 E-mail: juctg2008@gmail.com