PUBLIC hospitals in the country lack essential medical services, as crucial and high-tech medical equipment in those hospitals have been lying out of order for years. Most of the hospitals, including Dhaka Medical College Hospital, Kurmitola General Hospital, Sir Salimullah Medical College and Hospital (Mitford Hospital), Shaheed Suhrawardy Hospital and Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Hospital, have piles of medical equipment — some of them are intact but unused and some are not repaired. It is affecting service delivery to emergency patients. As X-ray, MRI, CT Scan and Cardiac catheterization machines are lying idle, the low-income-group patients are finding themselves in financial distress. The authorities who buy such equipment do not show any interest to come to an arrangement with the medical equipment suppliers so that they would have to provide after-sale service for 12-14 years. This way we would not need to spend additional manpower on the setting up new committees to oversee the functionality of the equipment.
One wonders why it hasn’t been implemented in government hospitals where most of our lower income segment population frequently goes there as recourse for their health troubles. There are gangs of predators who like to take the patients to private hospitals where they are charged higher amounts, out of which these gangs are given commissions. We must say, the patients from underprivileged socio-economic strata must have the right to access these machines as they can’t pay the higher fees in private hospitals. The rich may not require the public medical services. But it is the poor who need such services obviously. It needs an immediate solution to this problem or the ultra-poor.
The authority, without recourse to additional red tape, must provide the hospitals with necessary support immediately fixing the machines.
One wonders why it hasn’t been implemented in government hospitals where most of our lower income segment population frequently goes there as recourse for their health troubles. There are gangs of predators who like to take the patients to private hospitals where they are charged higher amounts, out of which these gangs are given commissions. We must say, the patients from underprivileged socio-economic strata must have the right to access these machines as they can’t pay the higher fees in private hospitals. The rich may not require the public medical services. But it is the poor who need such services obviously. It needs an immediate solution to this problem or the ultra-poor.
The authority, without recourse to additional red tape, must provide the hospitals with necessary support immediately fixing the machines.
