Medical centres without licenses

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THERE are services which are extremely important for the simple reason that these involve human life. The same are the medical services and for the obvious reasons, no compromise can be allowed in running them properly or in maintaining their standards. Therefore, it is shocking to learn that there are medical centres in Bangladesh which are functioning without any authorisation from the official health authorities though such approval is a basic legal requirement for treating patients.
According to media reports, out of some 700 private clinics and pathological labs in the Chittagong region, 300 are running without licenses from the government's health directorate. A mobile court took actions against 12 such clinics and diagnostic centres sometime ago and fined them in varying degree and amounts and arrested some of their operators. At least 10 such so-called medical centres were closed down. It was found out during the drive that such organisations arenot only functioning without licensebut also hopelessly deficient in terms of the number of qualified doctors, support staff and equipment.
This scenario is not peculiar to Chittagong. The picture is more or less the same throughout the country including the capital city, Dhaka. According to another report, there are now more than 2,000 clinics and diagnostic centres in Dhaka city but the government's Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) gave licence to only 898 of them to operate.
It is not that authorisation cannot be bought and sold for money in this country. Even then, it provides the assurance of a minimum of standard whereas the unauthorised ones are not bound by any regulation or supervision and prove to be like death houses than curing places. And that is what is happening to patients who get admitted to such unauthorised clinics. The unauthorised clinics without proper operating chambers, equipment and well-qualified doctors and staff are in no position to discharge proper treatment to patients. Consequences of treatment based on the pathological findings of bogus diagnostic centres can be fatal in the same way.
Government must do immediately-what it should have done long ago - to stop such butcheries in the name of providing medical services. A comprehensive and countrywide crackdown against the unauthorised medical business is very necessary as innocent patients are wasting their precious resources at such places often risking their lives in the process.

Nizamuddin Ahmed
DOHS, Dhaka.