With no physician at the Akhaura railway medical centre, hundreds of railway officials and staff along with general passengers are being deprived of medical service at the station.
On top of that, the ruinous condition of the medical centre building along with various other inadequacies add to the woes of the railway staff.
According to concerned sources, at least 40-50 railway staff go for treatment at this medical centre. With no physician available, a pharmacist of the centre is treating the patients day after day.
Md Nurul Islam, a railway worker at the Electrical department, said: “In the 80s, when my father used to bring me at the medical centre, the service here was very good: this place had multiple beds. But now, despite increasing number of patients, the service is degrading. A doctor is direly needed here as VIPs and high officials frequently pass through the Akhaura station.”
It was learned that Mymensingh railway medical centre physician Md Aiyubur Rahman has also been given charge of the Akhaura medical centre. However, the same physician is also assigned to eight other railway medical centres including Sylhet, Kulaura, Bhoirab and others.
Thus physician Md Aiyubur is not available regularly; in the last four months he came to the Akhaura centre only twice. Upon visit, it was seen Moday and yesterday that pharmacist Md Kamruzzaman is writing prescriptions and giving medicines to patients who came in for treatment.
The building is also in a dire condition with plasters falling off parts of the roof and walls. In the three out of ten rooms which are in service, water was leaking in continuously. Overall, the building has become potentially risky for the railway staff who come to get treatment here.
Railway worker Narayan Chandra Das said: “Since there are no doctors here, patients have to go elsewhere. Hundreds of us railway workers are being deprived of the treatment, which we are entitled to here.”
Pharmacist Kamruzzaman said: “I try my level best to serve the patients. If we had a doctor, we could have served those who come in with bigger complications.”
An application has been sent for assignment of doctors at these medical centres, he added.
Akhaura Railway Junction Assistant Executive Engineer Kazi Mostafizur Rahman also admitted the dilapidated condition of the medical centre and said the concerned authorities have been notified of the situation.