Expansion of medical studies

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PEOPLE at large in Bangladesh have a common complaint against the doctors. Thus, they complain doctors do not behave rationally with the patients. They charge exorbitant fees for their advice and other health services which are not commensurate with the average earning of the people. They advise unnecessary tests, along with necessary ones, just to get a half of the charges recovered from the patient via diagnostic centers. Frequently they even do not examine and give the patients a proper prescription.
Usually the graduate and post-graduate doctors are reluctant to serve the public rural health centers or even to accept government jobs under the given salary structure. They avail themselves of different limitations of administrative rules, regulations and orders to avoid staying at their posting at rural health centers.
On the other hand, it is a matter of concern that students are losing interest to study science subjects at secondary and higher secondary levels. It is the age of professionalism. After studying in science subjects students, get very limited chances to study professional subjects in present-day Bangladesh. Setting up of more medical collages can encourage students to study science subjects at secondary and higher secondary levels. The elected government is committed to provide health services in rural as well as urban areas of the country. But it becomes difficult to keep the doctors in rural areas to serve countrymen. To address this practical problem, it is necessary to set up and run 64 medical collages in 64 districts to impart under-graduate medical courses. The under-graduate doctors who will successfully come out from such collages, should be recruited by the government. The required numbers of posts in rural health centers need to be created for under graduate doctors. They will serve the patients in rural Bangladesh. Six medical collages can, at least, be set up and run at six divisional cities for the under-graduate doctors who desire to study graduate medical courses. The scope for higher studies on the part of the under graduate doctors needs to be created.
Bangladesh has enough teachers to impart medical courses at under-graduate and graduate levels. It is a grate advantage. We need to utilise this opportunity. We need to invest a large sum of money to set up and run these collages.
Therefore, the elected government needs to take a massive five year plan to set up undergraduate medical colleges in each district to impart under-graduate medical courses and set up and run graduate medical collages in each divisional city to impart graduate medical courses to the under-graduate doctors.
Md. Ashraf Hossain
120, Cenral Bashabo, Dhaka-1214.
E-mail: mah120cb@yahoo.com