Unlicensed hospitals a menace to public health

The delaying tactics apparently adopted by police officers investigating the case of two Tripura girls allegedly raped by two members of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) in Lama Upazila of Bandarban on August 22 are frustrating. These hospitals and clinics have been operating with neither valid documents nor requisite facilities or medical personnel. Indeed, from what has been reported in the press, we understand that these establishments were frequently visited by doctors on government payroll and the clientele were procured by middlemen.

That such medical establishments were allowed to operate in the heart of the capital city is alarming, to say the least. We are looking at all sorts of clinics and hospitals here, offering services from general medicine to diagnostic services; mental health to trauma care. We would like to know why the Directorate of Heath Services has to be directed by the HC to take action against the operation of these illegal medial establishments, many of which are run by public servants.

We would probably never have known of these illegal establishments had it not been reported in media. But now that the report has been followed up by a HC order, we expect authorities to come back with concrete actions within four weeks as to what steps they have taken to stop these clinics and diagnostic centres from operating. The quality of public health in our country is already highly suspect and the last thing we need is for illegal medical centres to crop up and operate with impunity in our urban centres where the chances of medical malpractice are much higher, putting public health in jeopardy.