Shocking deaths at SOMCH

The death of thirty two patients in the Sylhet Osmani Medical College and Hospital (SOMCH) within twenty four hours has shaken the entire nation.  The news has triggered a strong sense of incredulity as the deaths were reportedly not due to a sudden epidemic that sometimes takes its toll on human lives, especially in far-flung locations with little or no access to medical services. But this incident at the SOMCH, believed to be equipped with reasonably modern medical facilities, is all too unacceptable. What is poignantly heartbreaking is the stark fact that the deaths took place within the walls of a state-run medical college, allegedly due to negligence.
Media reports say, of the thirty two dead, ten were infants and that attendants of the victims have complained of utter negligence in the pediatric ward of the SOMCH where eight infants died from Monday midnight to Tuesday early morning with no physicians around. The SOMCH sources, according to media reports, said five of the babies died of pneumonia, three, of neonatal complications and two, of contagious diseases. As for the adults, ten died, reportedly, of cardiac diseases and the rest of various ailments including injuries sustained in a road accident and clash between two rival groups.
Deaths in hospitals are not unusual, and in the public hospitals where majority of the patients are admitted in critical conditions, deaths are but a daily phenomenon. But when it comes to alleged negligence of the hospital staff, mainly the doctors, deaths do raise questions. There are also questions about the deaths of five new borns who died in the incubators. The hospital authorities, too, have acknowledged that such a big number of casualties in as brief a period of time is highly abnormal. However, as is quite expected of them, they have resorted to defending their positions on grounds of less than the required number of beds in the hospital wards, especially in the pediatric and cardiac ones, fewer numbers of duty doctors and accompanying facilities.
Health experts have termed the incident 'shocking' and 'unprecedented', raising serious concerns about the state of governance in the public hospitals. There is nothing new at all in such concerns, even in being cynical about the overall system as there is very little left one can have faith in the functioning of the state-run hospitals which are plagued by corrupt practices, negligence and above all, a sense of brazen disrespect to professional obligation -- not to speak of commitment.
It need not be pointed out that mercenary mindset of a large segment of medical practitioners is doing havoc to the services of both public and private hospitals across the country. While the doctors are busy attending private clinics and diagnostic centres, the services that they are professionally obliged to perform in their designated workplaces are left to rot in total abandon. As usual, enquiry committees have been formed to unearth reasons for the shocking death toll in the SOMCH. One wonders, if these routine exercises will bring any good to the degraded functioning of the public healthcare services.