HC questions 'inaction' in implementing provisions

The High Court yesterday questioned the legality of “inaction” of the authorities concerned to properly implement the provisions of professional conduct of the intern doctors at hospitals across the country.

The court issued a rule asking the respondents to explain in four weeks why their inaction to properly implement the provisions should not be declared illegal.

Secretaries to the ministries of health, education and law, director general of Directorate of Health Services, secretary to Bangladesh Medical and Dental Council, vice chancellor of Rajshahi University and dean of its medicine faculty, principal of Rajshahi Medical College (RMC), director of RMC Hospital, deputy inspector general of police of Rajshahi, have been made respondents to the rule.

The HC bench of Justice Zubayer Rahman Chowdhury and Justice Md Iqbal Kabir passed the rule after hearing a writ petition filed by Supreme Court lawyer Rashedul Haque Khokon challenging the respondents' "inaction".

Tanzim Al Islam, a lawyer for the writ petitioner, told The Daily Star that the intern doctors particularly at RMCH and Bogra Medical College Hospital have reportedly misbehaved with the patients and their relatives. They even assaulted relatives of the patients in last few years.

The intern doctors are supposed to maintain good behavior, politeness, respect and responsibility while dealing with patients and their relatives under the relevant rules, he said.