MM Jasim :
Although the private hospitals, clinics, nursing homes and diagnostic centres have mushroomed in Dhaka city and elsewhere across the country for providing better Medicare facilities to patients, many of them are actually unauthorized and poorly equipped with wrong treatment.
In these medical institutes, many general practitioners in the name of ‘specialist doctors’ are cheating with the patients and charging exorbitant consultancy fees. Besides, they also prescribe a series of unnecessary pathological tests for which they get huge sum of money as commission.
Doctors at the private sector get 30-50 per cent commission from diagnostic centres for referring patients, sources said.
Thus, these ordinary physicians, having no special qualifications as required for, are earning thousands of taka every day and thereby simply cheating with the patients. On the other hand, the actual specialists are also being cheated by them.
Even some hospitals and clinics in the city are being run by ‘fake’ doctors in dirty environment and having almost no equipment. Many of them also run their activities without any approval from the concerned authority. They are often found to have conducted orthopedic operation by ‘fake’ doctors, nurses and technicians.
There are allegations that many doctors at district and upazila hospitals remain off-duty during office hours, while patients are suggested to go to private clinics and diagnostic centres or chambers.
It is easy to defraud patients in the name of treatment because they (those hospitals and clinics) are not generally challenged by the law enforcers or any other competent authority.
Many doctors of public hospitals from Dhaka regularly visit different private hospitals and clinics in the district towns every weekend as specialist doctors. There are allegations that they all are not specialists but simply general practitioners.
A syndicate of brokers is prowling through private hospitals in Dhaka and other cities and towns to cheat patients coming from rural areas on various pleas. Due to the organised activities of these agents, hundreds of poor and helpless patients and their attendants are being cheated and losing huge sum of money.
Recently, a RAB-2 Mobile Court led by executive magistrate AHM Anwar Pasha sealed off a private hospital named Shahjalal General Hospital in the city’s at Agargaon area as it was being run by three ‘fake’ doctors, nurse and technicians. The date of the hospital’s licence was also expired much earlier but not renewed.
Earlier in December, the government also ordered suspension of operations of Mohona Hospital on Green Road in the city for running without licence. The hospital allegedly declined to provide treatment to senior journalist Zaglul Ahmed Chowdhury after he was fatally injured in a road accident that led to his death on November 29.
Sources said, capital Dhaka has 465 licensed private clinics and hospitals and 1,305 laboratories and diagnostic centres while the unauthorised ones might be double in number.
On April 16, a High Court bench issued a ruling asking the government why it should not be directed to form a high-powered monitoring cell to check how different unauthorized hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, diagnostic centres and laboratories were running and why it (government) should not be directed to halt operations of those organisations.
Talking to The New Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) Pro-VC Dr Ruhul Amin Mia said, practicing as a specialist without having obtained any equal degree is utterly immoral. He said, BSMMU authorities have already issued numerous notices for students enrolled in MD and MS courses not to use these abbreviations on visiting cards or name plates.
Admitting that some of their students ignore these notices, he assured that appropriate measures would be taken if there was any specific allegation against any of them.
The so-called specialist doctors can be found these days almost in every corner of streets. Many of them have name plates and visiting cards that contain all sorts of English alphabets followed by brackets – PGT, BHS, “FCPS (part 1)”, “FCPS (part 2),””MD (in course),” “MD (part 1),” “MD (part 2),””MD (thesis),” “MD (last part)”, “MS (in course),” “MS (course completed),” and so on.
Bangladesh Medical Association (BMA) General Secretary Dr Iqbal Arslan said that the amended BMDC Act also barred doctors from using of degrees, which they have not, on cards or signboards. “The monitoring cell of Bangladesh Medical and Dental Council (BMDC) is very weak. As a result, they cannot identify the fake and non-specialists doctors to stop mistreatment,” he said.
“Physicians must use appropriate degrees. They must show registration numbers on their visiting cards and nameplates so that the common people could know them. It should be maintained. But unexpectedly some dishonest doctors, who have no special degrees, use those degrees and cheat with the people. It should be stopped immediately,” Dr Iqbal said. According to existing regulations, PGT, or Post Graduation Training, is just a training course and is not enough in any way to qualify someone as being a specialist doctor.
Regulations also suggest that FCPS, which stands for a Fellowship of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, cannot be used on visiting cards or name plates unless someone has fully completed the course. “FCPS (part 1)” means that the person has not completed the course. The same regulation applies for other degrees such as MD and MS.
Moreover, visiting cards and name plates of many doctors contain expressions like “Fellow (Mumbai, Australia, London)”, “Trained in Child Health”, “DTCD”, “DTSI”, “MPH”, “DTM&H”, “FKIT (Korea)”, “MD (PGI)”, “DM (Cardio)”, and so on. Medical experts say that these letters represent nothing but short courses or seminars that these doctors might have attended abroad and therefore do not qualify them as specialists.
Patients, most of whom have no idea about what these abbreviations mean, often consult these doctors thinking they are specialists and thereby get cheated.
Unscrupulous doctors can be found all over the country against whom there are allegations that they unlawfully and unrightfully prescribe high dosages of antibiotics and unnecessarily refer patients to private diagnostic centres for meaningless pathological tests. These doctors maintain underhand deals with diagnostic centres and receive commission for pathological tests.
There are also allegations that many of them, with just MBBS degrees, charge patients a good amount as consultancy fees and even perform operations falsely claiming that they are specialists. Health experts have expressed resentment, saying that many young doctors these days want to become rich through unethical ways, and never care for pursuing the basic duty of learning.
The experts said that concerned authorities like the Health Ministry, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) and the BMDC turn a blind eye to such malpractices due to strange reasons. BMDC sources said that there are also directives for doctors for mentioning their registration numbers in their prescriptions. But most doctors do not follow such directives.
BMDC Registrar Dr Jahedul Haque Basunia said that the number of fake doctors had been increasing alarmingly. Since the registered doctors often do not mention their registration numbers in prescriptions, fake doctors get the chance. These fake doctors often forge real registrations and certifications of other doctors in their favour, he alleged.
A number of universities in the country, including the (BSMMU), offer MD, MS and various diploma courses. Besides, the Bangladesh College of Physicians and Surgeons (BCPS) offer FCPS and MCPS degrees.
