Editorial
Bottlenecks to healthcare recruitment
Come down hard on the corrupt and unscrupulous
NEWS from the health front has not exactly been cheering for us in the past many years. And now it seems we are in for another blow where primary health care is concerned. For the last two months, the recruitment of healthcare assistants has remained stalled owing to the very large degree of corruption that has penetrated the recruitment process. It is clearly a matter of shame for us, seeing that even such a vital area as primary healthcare must become hostage at the hands of the unscrupulous, with the result that thousands of people in dire need of medical care will be compelled to remain in a vulnerable state.
These are the facts and they come from the office of the Directorate General, Primary Health itself. No fewer than 5,00,000 candidates applied for 6,391 posts, for which written examinations were conducted on 1 January this year. By early February, oral tests too were completed. That might lull anyone into thinking that everything was done according to the rules. Not so. As the DGPH notes, fat amounts of bribes passed into the hands of the civil surgeon's office and into the hands of the union parishad, upazila level and district level leaders of the ruling party. Some candidates have alleged that they paid Tk. 4,00,000 to union parishad chairmen in order to smoothen their passage into the primary healthcare jobs. As if that were not enough, more than 20,000 recommendations were despatched to health authorities from various layers of administration, suggesting clearly that the rules be twisted so that favoured candidates are given preference over those properly qualified for the posts. There have been other problems as well. In places like Gaibandha, Joypurhat and Rangpur, recruitment examinations could not be held because of demands for a bigger allocation of posts in the freedom fighters' quota.
At a time when the government has been emphasis-ing the need for healthcare services to be expanded across the country through such measures as opening new community clinics, it is an outrage that a simple matter of primary health assistants' recruitment will be bogged down by corruption. What now happens is that services delivery, which is so crucial especially in the rural regions, screeches to a halt. Health assistants are involved in some of the most vital and basic of health issues, such as registration of births, child and maternal health, vitamin A campaigns and general health programmes. They are also expected to man the community health clinics. If now we are forced to witness a flawed recruitment process that will place the unqualified and the less than competent in the primary healthcare system, we can only imagine the grave damage that will be done to the healthcare system overall.
Firm action is called for. The ministry of health in particular and the government in general must act fast to set things right. If wrongdoing creeps into primary healthcare, it will not be long before the entire health administration is burrowed through by corruption.
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