Medical Malpractices – A Dangerous Trend in Bangladesh

A personal Prologue not published in the newspaper: I lost my God daughter Afsheen to the negligences of ''united hospital'' and a brother Mashnoor to ''labaid''. Tears rolled as i wrote this report, i know i can never get them back but i URGE every friend of mine to REVOLT against these malpractices and doctors. It is time to STAND UP...PLZ share this n circulate

Medical Malpractices – A Dangerous Trend

Faizul Khan Tanim writes on the negligence of hospital services and why this has become an epidemic in our society

Recently, people have heard horrid stories of sheer negligence -- bordering on the criminal -- of the staff in the so-called state-of-the art hospitals.

There have been reports of the death of a seven-month old baby girl, a 27-year old young man and several more, all caused by negligence. In cases like these, the verdict of public opinion was unanimous: professional negligence by the healthcare provider causing death of the patient, even though very high prices were charged.

A seven-month old baby girl began to asphyxiate on the noon of 9 June and turned blue. She was rushed to a renowned private hospital in Gulshan-2 and was told that she had severe respiration problems with secretion in her lungs from pneumonia and was put in a ventilator. But that ventilator was removed hastily before her pneumonia's effects subsided.

The next morning the parents learnt that after 13 hours she had an apnea attack and had to be put in the ventilator again.The duty doctors and the consultants then realised that maybe the hypoxia/anoxia has hurt her brain and on the fourth day they decided to do a CT scan on her which other physicians said should have been done earlier.

As the parents prepared for the CT scan it was learnt that the scan would not happen that day, as the scanner was allegedly out of order. Later however, it was found that it was not the CT scanner that had the problem. The air-conditioner of the CT scan room was not functioning, which is why the doctors did not want to carry out the scanning and so it got deferred by a day.

This was just the beginning of the child's 20-day ordeal and after other irregularities like medication not being given on time, problems in the ventilator machine and after having spent an enormous amount of almost Tk 500,000, the baby died.

This is just one of the few cases amongst many. Patients and their families have recently become very vocal about the ill conditions of the hospitals. If anyone refers to the Facebook group “Blacklist Doctors: Share your complains against doctors”, they will be able to see a social revolution against medical malpractices and can read recent case studies of the patients' families. Thanks to citizen’s journalism and the use of social media and video streaming sites, we are getting instant updates of alarming stories like these.

So are the management bodies of most of these private and public hospitals at all accountable? Has healthcare become health-business in this country? Patients allege that the irregularities - scarcity of hospital beds, paramedics, nurses; inadequate supply of medicine; private practices of hospital doctors; politicization of the medical institutions; power exercises by CBAs (Collective Bargaining Agents), and middle-men; hidden costs of private clinics, rude behaviour of the doctors with patients - are some of the pressing issues which are forcing our healthcare standard on a severe downward spiral.

Meanwhile, the doctors allege that Pro-BNP-Jamaat doctors' organisation Doctors Association of Bangladesh (DAB) and pro-AL body of doctors Swadhinata Chikitshak Parishad (SCP) are pushing the medical institutions in the country towards an unimaginable quagmire. The good doctors, who are independent or belong to the opposition party during a particular regime, are basically given the most horrible work stations, much beneath their status.

A patient from the Gulshan area, requesting anonymity, alleged that, “These hospitals should be called 5-star medical fitness centres and nothing more. These places have hidden charges beyond imagination. As I was about to pay my bills for my treatment, there were several costs which made no sense and I was appalled to see that they have included a doctor’s visit fee of more than Tk 2,000 when I was sleeping in the cabin. The doctor did not even wake me up let alone examine me. I was admitted for an appendicitis surgery which costs seven to eight times more than any of the public hospitals.”

Speaking to the Weekend Independent secretary general of Bangladesh Private Clinic and Diagnostic Owners’ Association, Dr A B M Haroon said, “When it is a private hospital, all the expenses of equipment, doctors professional bills, hospital space rent, have increased a lot, and these have to be paid by private practitioners and investors as opposed to public hospitals funded by the government. Therefore, these charges have to be paid by the patients. But having said this, I must condemn these malpractices.”

“Private medical service in this country has a history of almost 20 years. Previously we used to depend on the public hospitals, semi-government treatment facilities or going abroad. And as our private sector developed over the last two decades, World Health Organization, WHO's 2010 report said that 65 percent of the total medical care is covered by the private medical organizations including allopathy, homeopathy, ayurvedic, herbal and other types of treatments. Yet, the private sector has a mere 21,000 physicians working as opposed to a lot more working for the government organisations,” Haroon added.

Haroon also mentioned that the mode of communication between the physicians and the patients should be updated and improved regularly, and that should reduce patient complaints significantly. Every organisation should also have quality control departments looking after doctor roster management, diet for patients, medical equipment and more. And there should not be any politics. Physicians with political affiliations must not exert or abuse the power of their political institutions. Hospitals and clinics which charge patients for visits when they are sleeping is extremely unethical and this should stop immediately.

“One of the biggest problems of the medical sector – the scarcity of doctors is actually caused by us. Even for the simplest treatment or general stomach-ache, the patients from beyond the urban areas rush to the main cities and this creates pressure on our limited resources despite the regional hospitals having qualified FCPS and Post Graduate doctors,” Haroon added.

*This article was first published in The Independent's Friday Weekend Magazine October 7 http://www.theindependentdigital.com/all.php?opt=view&page=42&date=2011-10-07