IN spite of being dead, a 16-month old baby was kept on life support in Japan-Bangladesh Friendship Hospital at Jigatola in the city. As part of routine work for checking hygienic condition of the hospitals, a mobile-court accompanied by RAB-2 personnel’s drive in this hospital detected it and fined the hospital Tk.11.50 lakh for using sub-standard materials and the lack of other hospital facilities, as quoted in The New Nation report. This is totally unethical behaviour and it is essentially playing with the lives of helpless patients.
The charges for diagnosis and other medical services in private hospitals and clinics and other diagnostic centers are sky-high and vary among them abnormally. Absence of a well-thought-out government policy and strict monitoring over the health care system has encouraged private hospitals and clinics to be in a mad rush to charge exorbitantly.
Data showed that different service charges between public and private hospitals and clinics vary even to the extent of 30 times depending on their brands and locations. Meanwhile, relatives of many patients of these clinics have complained to the authorities that some of these hospitals and clinics occasionally refuse to hand over the dead bodies to them for non-payment of dues.
Such a case happened recently in the city’s United Hospital where the authority had kept a dead body for a couple of days as their relatives could not pay the hospital’s abnormal charges on time. Besides, most of the hospitals lack necessary equipments and experienced doctors; but they always advertise what they don’t have. It is another type of cheating with the patients.
And the latest treachery with a 16 month old baby in the name of keeping him on life support illustrates the most dissolute attitude and a total disregard for professional ethics by hospital authorities. Reports show that the private hospitals’ owners have connections in high places.
Experts and different medical association leaders blamed the government’s loose monitoring for the sufferings of the helpless patients and their families. This has encouraged the dishonest businessmen to mint money in medical services. These people are making huge money capitalizing on the helplessness of patients. Government should immediately take steps to set a uniform standard in medical services and its charges. And government must keep an eye over all these ill-judged activities in both public and private hospitals. This sort of life-taking corrupt men should be considered as criminals and awarded capital punishment. It is condemnable that the government has virtually no control over the private Medical system.
It is high time for government to prove its position on behalf of the public by assuring punishment to all these illegal money-making forces.
