Doctors leave patients, go for campaign
Healthcare services at Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH) were disrupted for more than two hours yesterday, as doctors left their workplace to attend a views-exchange meeting organised for the ruling Awami League-blessed mayor aspirant Nasir Uddin.
Hundreds of outdoor patients were seen waiting at the medicine and surgery (general surgery and orthopaedic surgery) units during that time.
Amirul Islam, of Chittagong, had to wait for more than an hour in front of the outdoor medicine doctor's chamber for his throat pain.
“I have been waiting here for more than an hour but there's no doctor,” he told this correspondent around 11:35am.
The meeting, which started around 11:00am, was held at Shah Alam Bir Uttam Auditorium of the Chittagong Medical College and went on for around two and a half hours.
Asked if any government official could join such a meeting which is part of Nasir's electoral campaign, former election commissioner M Sakhawat Hussain said as per electoral code of conduct, non-government official or staff can join any electoral campaign meeting.
“If government doctors take part in such a meeting, it is definitely a violation of code of conduct,” he viewed.
Whenever such incidents come to the notice of the returning officer, he must investigate and take necessary action, Sakhawat said.
Contacted, Shafiqur Rahman, assistant returning officer, said no government official could participate in electoral campaign.
“There is no specific rule in the electoral code of conduct as to whether a government official, as an audience, can attend a meeting of any candidate,” he said.
Although there was no name of the organiser in the banner, Sheikh Shafiul Azam, president of Swadhinata Chikitsak Parishad (Swachip), Chittagong, who presided over the meeting, said the programme was organised by Swachip leaders in the name of Socheton Chikitsak Parishad.
He said they did not use the name Swachip as organiser to avoid violating the electoral code of conduct.
During a visit to the hospital yesterday, this correspondent found that most of the doctors for outdoor patients were not in their rooms. Only a few doctors were seeing patients.
Contacted, CMCH Director Brig Gen Khondakar Shahidul Ghani said he had visited the outdoor around 10:30am as part of his daily visit and asked doctors to be careful so that treatments of patients could go unhindered.
“The hospital has the capacity to treat 1,010 patients but the doctors have to serve almost double that,” he said.
Regarding doctors' absence from the workplace during duty hours to attend a meeting of a mayoral aspirant, he said, “It's an academic hospital and there might have had other commitments.”
He claimed that patient treatment was not hampered.
Pranab Kumar Chakraborty, head of Child Health, told The Daily Star that, “As a member of Bangladesh Medical Association, we have some thoughts to exchange with the public leaders. Moreover, as a conscious citizen, I can hear the speeches of public leaders.”
“We stayed there for only around an hour and sufficient doctors were in the ward to serve the patients during that time,” he added.
Asked if a government doctor can attend such a meeting, Nurul Huda, associate professor of Nephrology department, said, “I asked my colleagues about it and they told me that if we have the right to cast vote, we also have the right to listen to speeches of public leaders.”
Meanwhile, Nasir at the meeting said the two major problems of the city -- waterlogging and poor waste management -- cannot be solved only with city corporation fund.
“The government's assistance is necessary to solve these problems,” he said. If he is elected mayor, it would be easier for him to get the assistance from the government as he is blessed by the prime minister, he added.
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