The government has suspended, or given a final warning to, more than 300 physicians for their regular failure to attend the rural clinics where they have been posted, said Khandakar M Shefayetullah, chief of the Directorate General of Health Services.
He also told New Age on Monday that the ministry would very shortly be sending a notice to district civil surgeons to warn them that that it would take action against them, as well as the divisional directors and the upazila health and the family welfare officers, if doctors are found to be absent in the future.
'It is alleged that some absentee doctors enjoy impunity by maintaining a good relationship with these officers,' he said.
'We have strengthened our monitoring to ensure attendance of the doctors in the clinics of remote areas. Now we can monitor the attendance of the doctors centrally from the ministry up to the upazila-level hospitals because of our internet link and teleconference facilities,' the director general claimed.
The 300 doctors against whom action has been taken were found to be absent in the last few months.
This action follows remarks in a speech made by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the end of March in which she said that the doctors who do not attend their hospitals will not be allowed to continue in their jobs.
On March 29 the United News of Bangladesh reported that the prime minister had said, 'It has often been observed that many doctors at the upazila level do not attend their offices regularly. As a result, the mass people are deprived of better healthcare facilities in the government hospitals. Even the doctors who are appointed on ad hoc basis also refrain from attending their offices regularly.'
She cautioned that if the doctors appointed on ad hoc basis are found negligent in their duties, they would be summarily dismissed, and that civil surgeons would be held responsible if the doctors do not discharge their duties regularly in their hospitals.
Shefayetullah also admitted to New Age that many doctors have been posted at the union-based healthcare sub-centres which exist only on paper since they have no building or other infrastructure, but said that the ministry has now issued clear instructions that those doctors have to work for the upazila health complexes.
New Age reported in May that the government has failed to establish more than 60 union healthcare sub-centres in Dhaka district though doctors have been appointed to work in them. They will now have to work for various upazila health complexes.
The daily said that in Dhaka city 16 assistant surgeons were appointed at the sub-centres in Harirampur, Sharulia, Manda, Dakkhinkhan, Shyampur, Nasirabad, Badda, Satarkul, Dhania, Dakkhingaon, Duman, Matuail, Uttarkhan, Beraid, Sultanganj and Demra union, but in fact all of these doctors work in the Tejgaon Health Complex.
Source: New Age
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