Medical treatment abroad

The present caretaker government (CTG) released the chairperson and the general secretary of the Awami League on parole to get medical care overseas. Recently ( The Daily Star, June 19, 2008), the BNP chairperson demanded that all political leaders who had received medical treatment earlier should be allowed to seek medical care abroad. While receiving appropriate medical care is a basic human right for all individuals, whether they are free or are in prison, bringing the perpetrators of crime and abuse of power to justice is also a matter of paramount interest. In our prison system, these financially well off political leaders receive much better care than the other inmates who are poor. In the past, they may have been abroad to seek medical care for ailment that could have been managed with the facilities we have at home.
The rich in Bangladesh have a tendency to seek medical care abroad just because they can afford it. However, affordability must not be a criterion to justify overseas medical care, rather the nature of the illness and unavailability of remedies at home should. It is time for the CTG to devise a policy to make arrangement for proper medical care for the political leaders at home and set rules about the criteria to seek treatment abroad.