THE nation is now probably set to have another political episode being acted in the burnt unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH). Reports in a national English daily on Friday said, some people showed up there on Thursday which is highly restricted to visitors with TV gears and apparently started shooting a film suitable for documentary in the cover of highlighting woes of burn sufferers now fighting between life and death in the hospital beds. The TV crew at first produced them as Bangladesh Television (BTV) journalists and cameramen and even did not bother to take permission from the hospital authorities. They did not take the protective apron and mask. The team started filming the patients in the hospital beds who were moaning in pains and crying for life. They were asked to cry loud. It was a highly repugnant act and risky as well to the patients for exposure to new infections. It was indeed a dastardly criminal act but to those who went for filming the patients it appears to be highly exploitative both politically and also inasmuch as it can fetch handsome financial benefits to them. Later on questioning as the news report said, the TV crew said they are indeed not BTV men. The team leader now claimed he is a journalist and showed his business card as a senior editor/ author and film director of Dainik Ei Bangla, Shaptahik Durniti and Friday Review. He said he was doing it on his own but he would hand over it to the state run BTV for telecast. It appears that the DMCH burn unit has already turned out to be a highly political hotspot with VIPs, political figures and journalists visiting the place everyday. In most cases they are after political dividend. They are crowding inside, talking with patients, showing their face to TV cameras and creating chaos. They are hampering treatment. The situation turns to be worst whenever fresh arson victims arrive at the burn unit.It showed the brutal inhuman face of people who speak for the victims but they are really out to exploit their sufferings shedding crocodile tears to achieve dirty goals. We are appalled to see how beast a human being can be when a woman with the TV crew posed with an arson victim with glycerin applied in her eyes to fake tears. She showed that his sufferings have made her cry. We strongly condemn this treatment of the burn patients at the hospital beds. It is indeed a shame on the face of the entire nation. We can’t understand how these people can enter the DMCH burn unit without proper permission of the hospital authorities, least to speak of filming of the pains and sufferings of the patients with mischievous end. We are really sorry at the same time for the sufferings of the innocent victims of petrol bombs thrown by miscreants in running buses and other transports. This is collective failure of the nation as it is failing to protect its citizens who are falling victims to political power struggles now raging this country. But we can’t allow playing foul with the sufferings of burn patients and we urge the DMCH authorities to strongly restrict entry of unwanted persons to the hospital section to save the privacy of the burn unit patients. There can’t be any compromise. The hospital authorities can’t overlook their responsibility.
