Editorial
Lopsided manning
Doctors' posts in rural vis-Ã -vis urban areas
It seems that the government has been totally unable to keep the doctors in the rural areas. The predilections of the doctors for jobs in the bigger public hospitals in the major towns and cities is quite understandable, but the state of manning of the posts of doctors outside the capital, in the outlying areas in particular, belittles the Hippocratic Oath which the doctors morally accede to even if they may not formally swear to it these days.
The figure of this uneven state, as exposed in a report of a leading Bangla daily recently, points to a very ludicrous as well as grim situation. Where as, for example in BBSMUH, there is 300 percent more the number of doctors compared to the number of seats in the gynecology department of a certain government hospital in the capital, some hospitals in the rural areas are having to do with only 30 percent of what they are entitled.
The general shortfall in the upazilla is in the region of 25 percent and taken on the basis of division it is between 17 percent in Dhaka and 36 percent in Barisal. It is regrettable that despite the induction of more than four thousand doctors on ad hoc basis the situation persists. What is surprising is that the DG Health office does not know how many of them are in the villages. Most of the doctors, particularly the newly employed ones find all sorts of pretexts to come to the capital.
Needless to say, politics and partisanship has much to do for the prevailing state of affairs. Reportedly, most of the beneficiaries of attachment, secondment, post graduate training etc, belong to the ruling party.
It is regrettable that despite the PM's repeated exhortations to doctors to go to the rural areas there has been an abject lack of commitment of our doctors to the rural populace. The health minister has publicly expressed his helplessness in addressing the situation, but can we accept that?
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