Closer watch on private clinics

THE death of an expecting mother with unborn child at an unauthorized health clinic at Putia upazila in the Rajshahi district is utterly shocking and it is indeed the eye opener to the existence of so many such clinics doing harm and causing death to patients all over the country. The clinic at Putia was running illegally where the mother died during a caesarean operation on Wednesday night. As it appears the doctor in the clinic was holding fake identity of retired army personnel, the nurse was not trained and the operation theater was dirty having no life saving equipment.

We wonder how the clinic was running even four months after the Directorate General of Health Services had shut its door following an inspection when the inspection team found its license had expired long two years ago. Moreover it did not have any appointed medical staff to provide standard heath service to the patients.

Reports said local broker would lure patients to the clinic for commission and the said mother expired on operation table for improper handling of the casarean case. Now the owner of the private clinic who pretends to be a doctor and perform caesarean operation, the nurse and the broker – all are missing as police claimed although locals said they are roaming around. We demand immediate arrest of the culprits and put them on trail.

To us the incident is not an exception but a common phenomenon particularly at local level where paramedics or poorly trained physicians are running health clinics using shelter of political quarters and law enforcers. There is no regular inspection to such clinics and even health officials find those facilities inadequate to treat patients and order closure, but they ignore the order and continue the business. Most of them offer illegal abortion services to younger women under the cover of treating patients and take exorbitant fees. It is a lucrative source of income and such illegal health service is rampant not only in rural areas but also in cities dodging public eyes. Police are complicit to such business in most cases.

Human life is now highly vulnerable all over – be it in the hands of human traffickers, fake physicians or muggers and other criminals. They are exploiting the fragile law and order situation and cheating innocent people at a time when the government agencies are more helping the criminals than protecting the innocent.
One can’t imagine how heath clinics can operate without license and treat delivery cases having least fear for risk to life and breach of law. Common people are paying for such crimes with cash and cost of life. We demand for a through probe into all existing private health clinics all over the country and closure of those functioning without permission, trained physicians and necessary equipment.