Hospitals without doctors

The running of hospitals without doctors is worryingly becoming a new trend. The latest to join the growing list is the Pirojpur Mother and Child Welfare Centre (MCWC) which, since December last year, has been running without a single doctor. Because of this, a Family Planning Officer in Bhandaria is performing the duty of medical officer as additional duty at MCWC, coming into the centre once or twice a month, travelling a great distance.

Not only is this unacceptable, but is also very inefficient. Having so much work piled on someone cannot produce good results and its ultimate sufferers will unfortunately be the patients. Patients are already being treated by nurses instead of doctors at MCWC and have to alternatively go to expensive private clinics for Caesarean or normal deliveries. Previously, when a doctor was available, over two hundred patients would visit the hospital every day; now, the number is half that.

Only on February 3, this newspaper reported on a similar crisis at the 250-bed Kurigram Sadar Hospital. There too, consultants have to carry out duties not normally given to them because of the shortage of physicians. The same is the case in many more hospitals. But what is perhaps most concerning is that the higher authorities, allegedly, do nothing when they are informed about doctor shortages by the hospital authorities.

This, however, has to change. The healthcare sector is clearly inadequately funded and is dying for government assistance. Thus, the sooner the authorities formulate a comprehensive plan of assistance and implement it, the better.