Pandemonium in healthcare sector

The entire nation’s concern has been echoed in the strongest terms in the reaction expressed through a ruling passed by the High Court

Nothing can be most grisly ever human irony than the grim fact that human beings are no longer safe in the hands of those who have been sworn in to save the lives of the ailing ones in their most vulnerable situations. The recent tragic death of 3-year old Raifa Khan in a Chittagong branch of max clinic has taken the whole nation by a tremendous shell-shock. Raifa, daughter of a reporter, was admitted in the clinic with cold-induced throat complication earlier. The duty-doctor pushed sedil injection and the medicine immediately backfired in her immune system and she died the next day. From her 24-hour long quite a short journey from illness to death, the whole pandemonium in healthcare has come to the forefront on the clearest ever canvass.
The entire nation’s concern has been echoed in the strongest terms in the reaction expressed through a ruling passed by the High Court. We have to take into serious cognizance when the High Court says that the health sector of the country has been held hostage by the vicious syndicate of miscreants. We unequivocally subscribe our belief to this epoch-making observation of the judiciary. This is not just a stray incident that makes the court a gross generalization about the precariously risks-involved medical facilities. Rather, hundreds of incidents of gross negligence and wrong diagnosis on the part of the medical practitioners both in the public and the private hospitals over the years have been there to justify the validity and authenticity of this historic statement.
Patients’ death resulting from the negligence and rough handling of the doctors as well as the nurses have been regular recurrences in almost all the hospitals right from the independence of Bangladesh. If the deaths under treatment happen to be the chance incidents, none will ever voice their concern. Whenever it is proved to be the case of deliberate negligence and intentional ignoring, each individual case has to be taken with utmost seriousness. It matters less how deep a medical practitioner can penetrate into his/her specialized field of knowledge than the care and the caution with which he makes his/her decision upon the life of a patient. By any civilized norms and standards, it has to be considered a criminal offence once the doctor in question hardly takes a suggestion in making a crucial decision even though there options are open for him/her.
The irresistible lure for making quick, ready money, the degradation of ethical norms and values coupled with the total absence of patriotic commitment have long been working as the contributory factors holding our doctors back from performing in the people-friendly way. When mercenary motives reign supreme and become the rules of the game, little positive and altruistic dividends can be reaped.
Compared to the doctors even of neighboring India who are strongly self-principled and self-committed to work for the patients first rather than to entertain their self or personal interests, we will manifestly find there a qualitative and motivational difference with those of ours. once we see the motivation of the doctors on the universal scale, we will clearly see that addressing patients’ concerns in all earnestness is evidently the motivating zeal of the overwhelming majority of the foreign doctors and it almost complete absence among the Bangladeshi doctors make all the difference in this respect.
Negligence towards avowed duty and aversion to assigned tasks occur only when one is planed above accountability. Bangladeshi doctors are strongly organized and solidly fortified professional community so far as their professional as well as financial interests are concerned. However, when it comes to the concerns of the patients, they are even more organized but this time in the negative fashion to save their colleagues from the alleged charges. The ultimate release of the doctors accused of negligence to duty and clearly wrong treatment by the powerful interference of the DAB leaders speaks it all as evidence.
It has been proved time and again that no governments of Bangladesh have been able to hamstring the coterie interest of the doctors. Hardly we see doctors residing in the union parishod and thana health complex premises who are in principle thought of to be there to address the immediate needs of the local people. Paid by the tax-payers money, they are ethically supposed to serve in their turn the people who pay them. Private practice of the doctors is universally accepted and allowed if done with ethics and principles. The private practice of Bangladeshi outrageously disregards the norms of their avowed and assigned responsibility.
Again, the case of Raifa Khan is a clear context where a doctor has made a wrong diagnosis and still the wrong application of medicine. And this is just the point where we the conscious citizens voice our concerns since provisions have long been there to refer the patients to the expert doctors once the patients baffle the attending doctors. We strongly demand that any person if proved guilty must be brought to book.    
 

The writer, Assistant
Professor of English in
Bogra Cantonment Public School & College, is a contributor to
The Independent.
E-mail: [email protected]

Pandemonium in healthcare sector

The entire nations concern has been echoed in the strongest terms in the reaction expressed through a ruling passed by the High Court

Nothing can be most grisly ever human irony than the grim fact that human beings are no longer safe in the hands of those who have been sworn in to save the lives of the ailing ones in their most vulnerable situations. The recent tragic death of 3-year old Raifa Khan in a Chittagong branch of max clinic has taken the whole nation by a tremendous shell-shock. Raifa, daughter of a reporter, was admitted in the clinic with cold-induced throat complication earlier. The duty-doctor pushed sedil injection and the medicine immediately backfired in her immune system and she died the next day. From her 24-hour long quite a short journey from illness to death, the whole pandemonium in healthcare has come to the forefront on the clearest ever canvass. The entire nations concern has been echoed in the strongest terms in the reaction expressed through a ruling passed by the High Court. We have to take into serious cognizance when the High Court says that the health sector of the country has been held hostage by the vicious syndicate of miscreants. We unequivocally subscribe our belief to this epoch-making observation of the judiciary. This is not just a stray incident that makes the court a gross generalization about the precariously risks-involved medical facilities. Rather, hundreds of incidents of gross negligence and wrong diagnosis on the part of the medical practitioners both in the public and the private hospitals over the years have been there to justify the validity and authenticity of this historic statement. Patients death resulting from the negligence and rough handling of the doctors as well as the nurses have been regular recurrences in almost all the hospitals right from the independence of Bangladesh. If the deaths under treatment happen to be the chance incidents, none will ever voice their concern. Whenever it is proved to be the case of deliberate negligence and intentional ignoring, each individual case has to be taken with utmost seriousness. It matters less how deep a medical practitioner can penetrate into his/her specialized field of knowledge than the care and the caution with which he makes his/her decision upon the life of a patient. By any civilized norms and standards, it has to be considered a criminal offence once the doctor in question hardly takes a suggestion in making a crucial decision even though there options are open for him/her. The irresistible lure for making quick, ready money, the degradation of ethical norms and values coupled with the total absence of patriotic commitment have long been working as the contributory factors holding our doctors back from performing in the people-friendly way. When mercenary motives reign supreme and become the rules of the game, little positive and altruistic dividends can be reaped. Compared to the doctors even of neighboring India who are strongly self-principled and self-committed to work for the patients first rather than to entertain their self or personal interests, we will manifestly find there a qualitative and motivational difference with those of ours. once we see the motivation of the doctors on the universal scale, we will clearly see that addressing patients concerns in all earnestness is evidently the motivating zeal of the overwhelming majority of the foreign doctors and it almost complete absence among the Bangladeshi doctors make all the difference in this respect. Negligence towards avowed duty and aversion to assigned tasks occur only when one is planed above accountability. Bangladeshi doctors are strongly organized and solidly fortified professional community so far as their professional as well as financial interests are concerned. However, when it comes to the concerns of the patients, they are even more organized but this time in the negative fashion to save their colleagues from the alleged charges. The ultimate release of the doctors accused of negligence to duty and clearly wrong treatment by the powerful interference of the DAB leaders speaks it all as evidence. It has been proved time and again that no governments of Bangladesh have been able to hamstring the coterie interest of the doctors. Hardly we see doctors residing in the union parishod and thana health complex premises who are in principle thought of to be there to address the immediate needs of the local people. Paid by the tax-payers money, they are ethically supposed to serve in their turn the people who pay them. Private practice of the doctors is universally accepted and allowed if done with ethics and principles. The private practice of Bangladeshi outrageously disregards the norms of their avowed and assigned responsibility. Again, the case of Raifa Khan is a clear context where a doctor has made a wrong diagnosis and still the wrong application of medicine. And this is just the point where we the conscious citizens voice our concerns since provisions have long been there to refer the patients to the expert doctors once the patients baffle the attending doctors. We strongly demand that any person if proved guilty must be brought to book. The writer, Assistant Professor of English in Bogra Cantonment Public School College, is a contributor to The Independent. E-mail: [email protected]