Tale of a dental patient
Poor Ghiasuddin had come all on a sudden after a very long time, from Agha Nawaber Dewri, Old Dhaka and told us that he had been suffering from severe toothache for the last ten days. My wife gave him taka two hundred and told him to go to Dhaka Medical College Hospital. But he refused to take the money saying that he had gone to Dhaka Medical College Hospital. There he met a person who advised him to go to a particular dental clinic for quick relief and better treatment. He went to the clinic and paid the dentist a consultation fee of taka three hundred. He (the dentist) wrote him a prescription and told him to get his teeth X-rayed.
Ghias purchased the medicines for taka two hundred and also got his teeth X-rayed for taka three hundred and fifty and the next day he went to the dentist again.
The doctor examined the X-ray report and said that his teeth needed to be cleaned and also a tooth needed to be pulled out which would cost him taka seventeen hundred only. The doctor further said that if there was any difficulty in pulling out the affected tooth, Ghias would have to undergo an operation for which he would have to pay taka eight thousand only. Poor Ghias stood there astonished and puzzled.
After a week, Ghiasuddin again came to us and said he had pulled out his tooth for taka one hundred and fifty only at a footpath dental shop in Court Road and felt much better now.
If so is the story of Ghiasuddin, we wonder how the majority of our poor patients would go for medical treatment. Would our health minister kindly make any comment on the matter please?
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