Staff Reporter :
The Medical equipments, which were bought for different government medical colleges, hospitals and healthcare institutions worth Tk 2000 crore, are now ruining in the Central Medical Stores Depot (CMSD).
These instruments are bought with enthusiasm in every year, but indifference is seen during distribution. As a result, the equipments have been kept in the CMSD warehouse and they are going to destroy.
Sources said, CMSD buys medicines, medical equipments and vehicles for all government medical colleges, hospitals, specialized hospitals, districts and upazila level hospitals. The Directorate General of Health Service (DGHS) and the Health Ministry’s line directors control that buying procedure. There are allegations that most of time the buying order of these high valued medical equipments is issued to CMSD without verification of field level demands. The line directors issue the buying orders with the connivance of contractor firms, and political and physicians’ leaders, it is further alleged.
Even the institutions don’t know that medical instruments were bought for them. As a result, these costly life saving drugs and equipments were stored for long time without distribution.
When visited, it was found that there were few ambulances and bikes in the CMSD yard. Few types of equipments were also kept outside of the warehouse, as there is no enough space inside. Even the equipments bought for the covid-19 were not possible to store in the warehouse.
In this circumstance, CMSD’s Director Abu Hena Morshed Zaman has sent a letter to the DGHS DG to discharge these old equipments with seven recommendations.
One of the directors of DGHS and the Management Information System (MIS) director have admitted that there are mismanagement over distribution of medical equipments.
Officials of the DGHS and CMSD do not know the quantity of equipments and their value kept in the warehouse. Work has already started to determine these.
