For the well-being and safety of patients, a five-point demand, including for a broker-free and patient-friendly hospital by an organization named ‘Nirapod Hashpatal Chai’.
They made the demand at a human chain organized in front of the National Press Club on Friday to protest malpractice and broker syndicates in the country.
The speakers at the programme said that the hospitals of the country need to be more patient-friendly.
The other demands of the organization included increasing the number of beds in each district headquarters hospitals including ICU and CCU; safety of patients, relatives of patients and physicians and stopping sexual harassment; ensuring tests and 24-hour emergency services at every hospital.
FA Shahed, coordinator of the organization, claimed that even after 50 years of independence, the basic rights of health care have not been ensured even today.
Claiming that one has to bear 74 to 80 percent of the medical expenses in the country, he said that the highest medical expenses are borne directly by the people in Bangladesh including in 60 countries of Asia.
“People are getting poorer by selling land, breaking savings, and borrowing money to pay for medical treatment,” he added.
Mufti Masum Billah Nafi, Chief Coordinator of Bangladesh Social Activist Forum, Rahat Hussain, President of National Friendship Society and others also spoke at the time.
Earlier on Thursday, a child died at a hospital in the capital’s Shyamoli area after he was thrown out by the hospital authority while undergoing treatment as his mother was not able to pay the bills.
According to the statement of the mother, when her two children fell ill, she admitted them in the capital’s Shaheed Suhrawardy Hospital. As there was no Intensive Care Unit (ICU) there, the next day, on Sunday (January 2), a broker took her to Shyamoli’s Amar Bangladesh Hospital for better treatment.
She was thrown out of the hospital with her children after not being able to pay the bill. Later, one of the children died on the way to Dhaka Medical College Hospital.