Reza Mahmud :
Although the Dhaka Medical College Hospital authority has been trying for long to clear the hospital compound of the brokers, most of the patients still suffer in various ways. The brokers’ audacity continues taking advantage of the patients’ helplessness and tendency to get treatment before others.
A patient told this correspondent on Tuesday that a broker asked her to pay Tk. 500 as ultra sonogram charge. “When it was said to him why should I pay extra amount when the official rate is Tk 120, the broker said: You will get quicker service and will be able to leave the hospital before others.
When contacted, Assistant Director of the hospital Dr. Khwaja Abdul Gafur told The New Nation on Tuesday, “We have been trying our best to remove the cheats and brokers from the DMCH compound. But the problem is that the patients and their attendants are not conscious enough about it. If we catch brokers of any number and try to handover them to police, none agrees to be the plaintiff of the case, nor gives evidence. As such, police cannot take legal action against the fraud.
There are warning marks at many points of the hospital. These are: Help the authority to catch the brokers, and never give money to them. If any broker is found loitering, please dial the cell phone number given below. But the warning has failed to improve the situation.
One of the brokers was found waiting outside the ultra sonogram room yesterday. He was taking talking with the patients and supervising them unnecessarily, but there was none to stop him. At that time, one of the women from the rear of the row said that the same broker had asked for Tk 300 from her for same service.
The officials of the hospital said, the entrance of unauthorized persons into the hospital is prohibited. But as a large number of patients escorted by their relatives and friends come to the hospital every day, it becomes really difficult to check all of them to sort out the brokers.
Many of the outdoor and emergency patients alleged, the brokers disturb them in many ways. In the pathology department, brokers obstruct the patients to go there after 11 am. If any patient goes there after 11 am, the patients are asked to wait outside. “They (brokers) say us at 12 pm, the schedule time is over, come tomorrow,” said Sumona a patient coming from Mirpur. She said, the brokers try to keep patients away from the DMCH pathology. They eventually try to take them in other private hospitals and clinics.
The patients and their relatives also alleged, many frauds and thieves also get inside the hospital. Last week, Nasima Begum, mother of a minor girl patient from Brahmanbaria, became the victim of aggyan party. Nasima Begum’s daughter Jonaki was the admitted patient. The day the authority released Jonaki, her mother Nasima Begum was taking preparation for returning home. At 1:30 pm, three youths came to her and gave her some biscuits and said: It is from the authority for your daughter. But after taking smell of the biscuits, Nasima Begum fell unconscious. The youths then left with her gold ornaments and Tk seven thousands in cash. The victim was then admitted to the hospital.
