A terrible news report in the national dailies mentioned that 32 persons including 10 babies died in less than 24 hours at MAG Osmani Medical College Hospital in Sylhet, few days back allegedly due to negligence of on-duty doctors and hospital staff. Another report said 17 more patients including six babies died in the same hospital in 24 hours in the following day. The death of 10 babies in a single day in a major government hospital came as a big shock to the nation and we wonder what are really at fault — whether the physicians are not regularly attending or not making proper diagnosis. Another question is whether doctors had prescribed wrong medicine or the equipment now in use is properly functioning or not. We also wonder how the daily death rate varied from 32 to 17 on two consecutive days although the hospital management claimed it is a normal phenomenon. Our common sense suggests that the higher figure may be quite unrealistic and deserves to be properly investigated. We know that the government has already set up a three-member committee to probe into the matter. We welcome the move but we also want to highlight that such investigative steps are often used to take the real issue out of sight. There is a common allegation that the government has hardly any control over public hospitals, except for appointments of senior army personel to run them in an apparent attempt to win public trust. But the reality is that the public hospitals are dens of corruption and indiscipline where in most cases politically biased doctors with poor professional quality and support staff are at work. They often remain absent from duty and give a damn to the patients in need of desperate help. The hospital management fails to demand discipline from them. This may be one cause of death of so many patients in a single day. However setting aside all these charges, the common expectations from a public hospital is that people will get proper treatment and leave hospitals being cured of their ailment. Especially nursing newborn babies is highly sensitive and requires intense care. Now if so many people and especially babies die in a single day in such a hospital, people would wonder whether these are meant to kill people instead of curing them from sickness. We share the pains of families and especially mothers of newborn babies who lost their infants to death instead of taking them alive at home. We also urge the hospital management and the government to make sure that doctors and nurses are attending their patients to save their precious lives.
