Reza Mahmud :The fourth class employees rule the National Institute of Cancer Research and Hospital, and care none, taking advantage of the management’s weakness in administering the institution.They (fourth class employees) exercise their influence to manage beds for the patients, who ask for, in exchange of benefits. Acute negligence of duty, wastage of property for lack of maintenance, and sufferings of the patients are the common scenario. Everyday a good number of patients come to the hospital from different parts of the country, but in most of the cases they do not get proper treatment there.”Many beds remain empty, but the officials say those have been already booked officially. Nevertheless a mutual understanding between patients and staff make beds available,” said one of patients coming from Mirpur, Dhaka, preferring anonymity. On Thursday, an attendant of a cancer patient named Shefally Sarker from Comilla was seen on the ground floor with his patient on a stretcher of the hospital helplessly.He said, I have been trying to get a seat for the last two days for my grandmother, but to no avail.”Some seats were seen vacant, but the officials did not agree to allot for our patient. They said, it is not easy to get a seat there. The seats were already allocated. But for two days, those have been lying empty,” he said.Besides, many of the essential equipments in the hospital were out of order. The officials frequently ask the patients to obtain x-ray report, mammography report and other pathology tests from outside, as equipments were out of order. When asked, a medical technologist told The New Nation, the delay to repair the machines are responsible for asking patients to go outside for pathological tests. Meanwhile the patients alleged that the officials’ are regularly taking money from some of the nearby private health services by sending patients there. The Director of the institution, Professor Dr. Mohammad Mosharraf Hossain could not be reached in cell phone. He did not receive phone call despite our repeated attempts.
