Most Read

Don't get sponged!

16 July 2004, 18:00 PM
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
By AZ, Dhaka
16 July 2004, 18:00 PM
Sometime back (in Dhaka) I was sick and the family physician (GP) referred me to a specialist. I followed the procession obediently, spent around Taka 10,000, and both the doctors and self were none the wiser. I had to undergo X-ray and radioactive tests for two days, lasting a few hours each, to check on my blood circulation network, and the condition of my bones. Then the expensive medicines had only marginal effect. As a retired member of a middle fixed-income group family, I had to try homeo, hakimi and kaviraji local medicines to balance the budget. Perhaps this is a typical routine of many other patients. Those with money have the satisfaction to go abroad for treatment, at regular intervals.

Note the statement "at regular intervals". My sister (retired BCS) is in this trap with her BKK trips. The catch is simple: be extra polite, and render humanized service (abroad); and after the elaborate series of 'modern' tests, you are respectfully told (by the board of specialists) to take the trouble to come again after a certain interval, for confirmatory tests. The business is in the repeat visits good rent -seeking business.

Here the local specialists prescribe an array of expensive tests.

Google News LinkFor all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.

It is not possible for a patient which tests fall under any of the three categories: essential, necessary, or redundant and luxury.

The medical centres in Dhaka and elsewhere are booming, thanks to modern scientific bluff game (in most cases; including the so-called greenhouse Effect so strictly being imposed upon the developing countries by the West industrial countries, directly, and through the UN agencies, while the monsoon in Bengal region arrives punctually in the second week of June each year for the least 60 years I have been monitoring!).

What the authorities' are doing (with the cooperation of the professional bodies) is top secret no reprieve for the poor patients, harassed mentally, physically, and economically. The same state of no-action prevails in regard to solving crimes, political abuses, and corrupt practices in the civil and private sectors. There are two basic causes for the non-activity the proper network does not exist, and, connivance by those indirectly connected with side business'.

Would the JS take notice of the conditions depicted above?