Editorial
Emergency care at hospitals
High Court ruling must be implemented
WE sincerely endorse the High Court rule obliging doctors at hospitals to attend to emergency patients without waiting for the completion of admission formalities. The ruling came in response to a writ petition filed following the death of a teacher of Dhaka University at one of the city's reputed cardiac hospitals -- for which reasons the news probably made headlines. Previously too, a number of cases have been highlighted in the media -- while many others have not -- about patients deteriorating and even dying waiting for medical attention while admission formalities are completed.
It is crucial that medical treatment be given promptly, and this is especially so in the case of emergency patients. At most hospitals in our country, however, a lengthy bureaucratic admission process must first be completed, during which patients are basically held ransom to formalities, which almost always include the payment of a large deposit amount. Shockingly, even emergency patients are not spared these often fatal delays.
The clinical insensitivity of our medical professionals is not only wrong but lethal for patients. Perhaps more than anyone else, it is the duty of doctors to work for the sake of humanity and not business and profit. It is unfortunate that it has taken a court ruling to force doctors and hospitals to do what they are in fact duty bound to do. But, if the Hippocratic Oath and the pledge to practise medicine ethically and humanely does not compel our medical professionals to provide due care to their patients, we hope that at least the threat of legal consequences will. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare must now come together with the medical institutions of the country to devise a plan on how to implement the ruling so that no more lives are lost due to negligence and lack of care at hospitals.
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