Patients hostage to fake doctors in Satkhira

She and her husband Emdad Ali got down from a bus at about 10 am. They hired a rickshaw van and asked the rickshawpuller to take them to the clinic of Dr. Shahiduzzaman, consultant doctor at Satkhira Sadar Hospital.

But the rickshawpuller took them to Satkhira Surgical Clinic. The rickshawpuller was an agent of the clinic, deployed at the bus terminal to collect patients.

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At Satkhira Surgical Clinic, a man identifying himself as Dr GM Shahjahan Kabir advised her to have some pathological tests of urine and blood. Kabir charged Tk 150 as his fee and Tk 200 for the tests. The tests were done at the clinic.

The degrees written on Kabir letterhead pad reads: M.A.B.A MC (AFIM), Dhaka. He is also a business partner at the clinic.

Amirunnessa had arranged Tk 400 by selling a goat. He gave Tk 350 to the 'doctor'. He handed her a prescription and asked her to go home and take the medicines.

But she did not know that she was cheated by a fake doctor who has no academic qualification.

Later, when a pharmacy owner informed the matter to a local journalist, the fake doctor returned her the money.

Shahjahan Kabir and many others are cheating patients in this way for long, impersonating highly qualified doctors.

On investigation, it was found that there are 56 clinics and 47 diagnostic centres in the district, of which only 24 and 5 are registered.

But the number of MBBS radiologists, sinologists and micro-biologists in the district town is one tenth of the number of the pathological laboratories and diagnostic centers.

People now ponder how so many laboratories are run with so few specialists.

Investigation reports of these diagnostic centres are often misleading, at times leading to death from use of inappropriate medicine due to wrong diagnosis.

The cheating is going on unabated but neither the district health department not the administration has taken any step to stop this.

Most of clinic owners in Satkhira have "agents" at the Sadar Hospital and other places to lure patients in the name of better treatment. They are paid.

This correspondent during a visit to the Sadar Hospital on Monday saw some agents moving there.

Some of them admitted that they receive money from clinic owners for luring patients.

"As doctors are involved in the process, I never consider it unethical" said an agent on condition of anonymity.

Agent Abdus Satter said he gets Tk 50 to 200 for luring a petient, depending on the disease. "I earn Tk 1800 to 2200 per month and this is my only source of income to maintain my family".

When contacted Residential Medical Officer at Sadar Hospital Dr. Ishaque said, adequate measures have been taken to prevent agents from entering the hospital.

However, some hospital employees admitted that agents can not be identified easily as they enter the hospital in guise of patient's attendants.

Some patients and their attendants also alleged that a section of doctors and hospital staff also work in the interest of some private clinics.