Illegal drugstores sprout at DMCH

. PHOTO: Syed Zakir Hossain

Bangladesh Class Four Workers Association of the DMCH has constructed eight shops in front of the emergency gate of the hospital four years ago, followed by others in the coming years, and association leaders rented them out to local businesspeople and political cadres.

A former deputy director of the DMCH set up a pharmacy allegedly without permission from authorities. A former DMCH doctor, former president, former organising secretary of the association and a working doctor of the forensic department followed suit, sources said.

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"I don't know how the shops were built. We have already asked the former association president to hand over documents but he did not respond," said SM Shahjahan Kabir, association secretary.

"We have sent two letters and will send another soon. If we don't get answer, we will take legal action," he said.

"We pay the association Tk 3,500 in monthly rent," said Motiur Rahman, a drugstore staff.

Close to the emergency gate are three shops, which remain open round the clock. Later, the employees built four more shops near the gate of the Doctors Hostel.

Shop owners say they pay Tk 1,200 each in monthly rent to the committee of 'DMCH Noor Mosque' built in 1996.

"The mosque was constructed with this money," a mosque committee member said, adding: "If you can afford Tk 5-6 lakh, you can get a shop here." The demand for shops near the biggest hospital in Bangladesh is high.

Akbar Hossain Khoka, secretary of the mosque committee, allegedly collect rents from the shops.

Visitors to the DMCH alleged that the shops sell medicines at high prices. "A strip of sleeping pill sells at Tk 20 here and we buy medicines from these shops, as we don't have alternatives," said Majeda Khatun, who has been attending to her daughter at the DMCH over the last two weeks. The normal price of a strip of sleeping pill is Tk 14.

A butterfly needle used to transfuse saline sells at Tk 15, up from Tk 3.

"We buy a Ranison injection at Tk 12 from the shops here, while the price is only Tk 5 in other shops," said Abidur Rahman, who came from Basabo to take care of his son at the DMCH.

Visitors and attendants who come from other districts suffer more. The middlemen usually lead the unsuspecting relatives of patients from the wards to those shops and take commissions on sales.

"Patients and their relatives who come here to buy medicines are helpless," a staff of a shop said, seeking anonymity.

Shop owners also run payphone business there with illegal connections and regularly bribe the police.

Asked about the market, Kazi Kamaluddin, DMCH deputy director, said he does not know whether anybody has sought official permission to run the shops.

"The rent goes to the employees' welfare association," he told Star City later.

But some workers alleged that association leaders pocketed money in the name of the welfare association.

Pharmacy owners say running business has become tough, as extortionists and armed cadres demand tolls regularly. Most alleged extortionists are the cadres of the Dhaka University unit of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, the student wing of ruling BNP.

"If we do not please them, they beat us and take medicines or money away, brandishing firearms," a drugstore owner said, asking not to be named.

Other pharmacy owners said the police did not take action against the alleged criminals despite repeated complaints.