Saturday, August 29, 2009

Professor Quazi Quamruzzaman:
A doctor to the poor

Ershad Kamol

•   Part 1
•   Part 2
•   Part 3

He was trained as a surgeon from leading medical institutes in Europe and USA. Back home, Professor Quazi Quamruzzaman contemplated doing something for the people living below poverty line.

The poor health management in Bangladesh touched Quamruzzaman deeply to see how people die untreated. He planned and built a hospital named Dhaka Community Hospital in Mogbazar aiming to serve the poor with standard medical services.

The hospital provides a community-based scheme in the rural areas. If every household in a community of 3,000 families pays Tk 10 a month, it can have a qualified doctor and number of health workers.

Quamruzzaman never claimed that what he did was a charity. He says his target market is the poor, majority in the country. In an interview with Star Online, Quamruzzaman spelled out the problems in the health sector of Bangladesh.

He has not found any good effort either in public or private sector to improve health services. He is critical of many government initiatives prescribed by donors.

Moreover, he shares his and his hospital's continuous efforts to mitigate arsenic problem. According to him, over 85 million people in Bangladesh run the risk of being affected by arsenic.