Staff Reporter:
Home Affairs Advisor Lieutenant General Md. Jahangir Alam Chowdhury (retd.) said that the government is committed to keeping the medical service environment safe. In recent times, there have been unfortunate incidents such as attacks, vandalism or threats to doctors at hospitals and health centers. That is why the government is working to make the overall medical environment favorable, safe and people-friendly, including the safety of doctors. In this regard, civil surgeons need to further strengthen their close relationship with the administration and police department.
The advisor said these things in his speech as the chief guest at the session related to the Ministry of Home Affairs on the second day of the two-day (May 12-13) Civil Surgeons Conference organized by the Ministry of Health at the Shahid Abu Sayeed International Convention Center in the capital this morning.
Addressing the civil surgeons, the advisor said, “You are the most talented people in society. Therefore, public expectations are highest on you.” As the driving force of the health sector at the district level, your every decision, effort and sacrifice directly affects and touches people’s lives. Therefore, you are the light of hope for people, a refuge of hope in difficult times. Highlighting some proposals to make the service more people-friendly, the advisor said, taking the postmortem service to the police station level; having women’s postmortems done by female doctors; having a female doctor do the examination in rape cases, if not available, have a female nurse do it and have a male doctor countersign it, closing private medical colleges without teachers and educational materials and centered on buildings, forming an accreditation council to improve the quality of medical colleges, making arrangements for intern doctors to be trained for 6 months in the city and 6 months in the village and increasing the honorarium while in the village, etc. He said that if these steps are implemented, the people will get services quickly and public suffering will be reduced. Moreover, the country and the nation will be saved from the creation of inferior doctors.
Lieutenant General Md. Jahangir Alam Chowdhury (Retd.) said that the role of doctors in anti-drug campaigns and mental health management is very important. He called on civil surgeons to make drug rehabilitation and counseling activities fruitful by partnering with police stations or Narcotics Control Departments.
Stating that there are some complaints from the public against doctors, the advisor said that the medical profession is undoubtedly honorable. Doctors have the opportunity to provide the most service to the people and they are trying to do so. Nevertheless, there are some complaints from the public against doctors. He said, I want to believe that these complaints will be proven false. He further said that the biggest complaint of the public is that many government doctors do not appear in the hospitals within the stipulated time or do not stay full time. In many upazila or union health complexes, patients do not get treatment even after waiting for hours. This absence questions the quality of healthcare and creates a negative perception about the health sector.
In the question and answer session, the advisor answered various questions from the civil surgeons. Civil surgeons raised various demands with the advisor at this time. Notable among them are – granting recognition to district hospitals for KPI establishment and increasing police patrols there, modernizing the district postmortem center, providing gunmen for civil surgeons, etc. The advisor assured necessary cooperation in implementing the reasonable demands.
Among others, present at this time were Special Assistant to the Chief Advisor on the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Professor Dr. Md. Sayedur Rahman, Cabinet Secretary Dr. Sheikh Abdur Rashid, Secretary of the Health Services Division Md. Saidur Rahman, Secretary of the Health Education and Family Welfare Division Dr. Md. Sarwar Bari, etc.
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