Honorable health minister, please don’t depend on the presenter of misinformation. Don’t spoil your goodwill that you achieved through the efforts of long time. You’re a man of principle. However, the health sector has been experiencing the bleak picture for a long time. We see plundering in the name of purchase and disorder in the name of treatment facilities. The health businesses seem to make the common people hostages. The picture is the same everywhere, both in public and private sector. The private sector is unbridled. The business of procurement in the public sector is in the hands of syndicates. Even if they don't need it, they form a syndicate and buy Chinese equipment and seal it with label of Japan and Germany. Then leave it in the warehouse. No use. When asked, they said, there is no technician. How would we activate it? So, the question is why did you buy the machine without the technician? Health equipment cannot be left in godowns. Everyone knows this cycle that destroys the image of the government. Everyone knows, however, no action is taken against them. Their influence is very deep. Temporarily, 'Mithus' are departed, but a new syndicate is formed. Newly formed syndicates are controlling the health sector.

Honorable Minister of Health, the monstrous syndicates are destroying the earned reputation of the government. Helpless situation is being created all around. All syndicates need to end. I believe you can end it. You have initiatives. There is honesty and past record of work success. The Prime Minister has confidence. You are trying to take responsibility. She is going to the spots himself, trying to drive out syndicates and gangs. Even then, the fear does not go away. My grandmother used to say, 'A burnt child dreads the fire.' Such is our situation. Someone's house is on fire and Some others eat burnt potatoes. I was surprised by an answer you gave in the question and answer session in the National Parliament on June 25. How does such a false answer come to Parliament? The question was whether there is any plan to make the government hospital established at Goharua village of Nangalkot in Comilla fully operational. If so, when will it be launched? In response, it was said that the hospital was established in 2006, which is next to the uninhabited marshland from the upazila headquarters (marshland in the north and west-south direction).' Then more information is given: 'The hospital is open, there are doctors and nurses.' This statement given in the parliament surprised and disappointed me.

Honorable Health Minister, our Hon'ble Prime Minister has trusted you to restore order in the country's health sector and assigned you for this reason.  I believe you will be able to evaluate the confidence and trust of the Prime Minister and give the gift of health care to the common people of the village. In order to reach the health care to the people, the dependence on the health sector bureaucrats should be reducedas well as dependency on civil surgeons and big bosses who spent lots in purchase. Like many others, you have no chance of success if you become victims of the Health Department and the District Civil Surgeons. What happened in the past will happen in the future. People want to see action, not just high-talk and want to face everything in hard reality with a strong hand. So, stop reckless shopping in the health sector. Find out who did this for what interest and who made the list of unnecessary equipment. Identify them. Don't want to go into the past history of Mithu syndicate sharing. Syndicates were formed as bureaucrats colluded with civil surgeons and officials of major hospitals and still that’s happening. There is no going back to that era. Pull the reins hard.

Dear Health Minister, I believe you can. She made a committee to investigate the rampant irregularities in the Mirpur Islami Bank Hospital. She herself ran to the scene and saw the spread of irregularities, Knew how business is done with life and death of people. You have also seen the disrespect and neglect of doctors. Private bank official Nadia Noor was admitted to Mirpur Islami Bank Hospital with diarrhea. The ambitious girl was only 30 years old. She had a happy family with her husband and a four-year-old child. Another four-month-old child was in her womb. The girl died within two days of hospitalization. A healthy person went to the hospital with diarrhea and came out as a corpse. The four-year-old child does not stop crying. The family is shocked and surprised. There was no disease in the girl's body. She used to get regular check-ups at Evercare Hospital as she was pregnant. The doctor used to show. No one had any problems. Due to sudden diarrhea, he was admitted to the nearby Islami Bank Hospital. After seeing no improvement in the condition, the family members said on the second day that they want to take it to Evercare. Immediately all the devices given in the ICU along with saline were removed from her body. The clothes were changed and left for two and a half to three hours. Screaming doctors-nurses did not get help. Doctors and nurses came with Evercare's ICU ambulance. They said did you leave the patient like this to kill her. Honorable Health Minister, as a doctor you also know how to take ICU patients according to the rules. Leaving the patient like this for a long time worsens the condition. Evercare expresses its inability to accept patients in this situation. Unable to eat, the baby in the girl's stomach died. The dead child was removed by a brutal operation. How many patients stay in the operation theatre? On the one hand, the operation is going on. Relatives of other patients are going to meet at the same place. What kind of treatment is it? Everything is so strange and pathetic!

Honorable Minister of Health, no one knows how many private clinics and diagnostics there are in Bangladesh. How many of these are valid? How many are illegal? As far as I know, there are more illegal than legal establishments. There is no doctor, no nurse, but the hospital is open. Government hospitals are overcrowded. More patients are admitted than the capacity. Why would this happen in private hospitals? For treatment in private hospitals, the fee for the test is not fixed. I did not go into the discussion of equipment. Most private hospitals do not have any professors. There, specialist means assistant professor. All others are interns or general practitioners. Many hospitals do not have it. No trained nurses. There is anarchy in the name of treatment. Helpless people are taken hostage. There is no escape even after death. Money is collected by keeping the body as a hostage for the relatives. Many people in Bangladesh do not go to the hospital anymore because they fear it. That day a friend from Calcutta said, I can't go to our hospital. I see only foreign patients. I asked a friend of mine which country has more patients in your hospital. The friend smiled and said, "Foreigners are all from Bangladesh. Some Africans came to Delhi, Mumbai. But at one time patients from Tripura, Nepal used to come to Bangladesh for treatment. Earlier Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru were not chosen by people of Bangladesh. Find out how many flights to Chennai now? Not only Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai hospitals are also crowded with Bangladeshi patients, those who can afford go to Bangkok or Singapore. That day, returning from Comilla, I saw private hospitals on both sides of the highway. I don't know who are running these, who is allowing, whether the rules are being followed or not. It is not allowed to open the signboard and make the hospital. Real treatment is essential.

Irregularity is now the rule. Many government hospitals do not have adequate testing facilities. Brokers go to poor patients and say there is no treatment here. The doctors stay elsewhere. You will have a good look there. There is no dearth of tools for experimentation either. Don't worry Just go once. You will see that everything is going well. Relatives of helpless patients think that survival is important. They admits his patients with helplessness influenced by the words of the brokers. After being released from the hospital, they even sell their the houses. The doctors and owners don’t care if we die or live. They only think of incoming money. As a place of hope, people want to get admission in Dhaka Medical or BSMMU. But the seat is not available there. Even lobbying by ministers and MPs is of no avail. Patients want something better.

Make government hospitals of good quality in every district town. Our Constitution has given us the right to medical treatment for common people. Arrange all tests including MRI, ICEO, Angiogram, X-ray at District Government Hospital. This will reduce the pressure on Dhaka. People will get medical care and won’t go abroad. Provide heart treatment in the district towns. Doctors should not stay only in Dhaka city. They have to go to districts and upzillas. If necessary, interns must stay in village hospitals and clinics for five years. Otherwise we will just listen to the big talks of big doctors in seminars. I will watch the speech on TV. No one will get treatment. The country's dollars will go abroad in the name of getting medical services. No one can stop or prevent it. Nothing is more important to people than survival.

(The writer is the Editor of The Bangladesh Pratidin)