A section of government officials and employees have been allegedly trying to pocket millions in the name of repairing out-of-order medical equipment at various upazila level hospitals.
The Dhaka Tribune has learnt that a group of contractors, in collaboration with a section of officials and employees of the health ministry and the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), are desperately trying to bag the work order for repairing the equipment.
The contractors have also been reportedly offering handsome bribes to a number of ministers, lawmakers and leaders of the ruling party, and leaders of doctors’ associations in exchange of obtaining the work orders.
Sources said a total of 130 X-ray machines, 504 ambulances, 67 generators, 60 air coolers, 60 autoclave, 36 ECG, 31 anaesthesia, 16 diathermy and 6 ultra-sonogram machines, and 22 dental units are lying out of order in various upazila level hospitals around the country.
While a good number of these machines went out of order because they had been used for several years, many of these equipment are relatively new – bought between 2009 and 2011.
Apart from the upazila hospitals, scores of X-ray machines and generators have been reportedly lying out of order at the district level government hospitals too.
Recent statistics from the DGHS showed that in the 43 district level government hospitals around the country, 21 out of 43 X-ray machines and 14 out of 36 generators have remained out of order for many days.
Health experts said the present government along with the previous ones had bought heavy and expensive machinery time and time again for these hospitals saying they would be used for treating poor patients.
They alleged that most of these machines were unnecessary and were brought without any proper plan.
Deliberate delay in setting up these machines, shortage of trained technicians for operating them, shortage of manpower and absence of uninterrupted power supply (UPS) boxes have resulted in these machines rarely coming to any use in the treatment of poor people, they said.
After consulting the doctors in the government hospitals, common people have no other option but rush to expensive private diagnostic facilities because these machines hardly ever work.
There are also allegations that many contractors have bribed influential government figures to get work orders for supplying these unnecessary machines.
This has happened several times during the tenure of this government as well, sources said.
Dr Rashid-e-Mahbub, former president of the Bangladesh Medical Association, told the Dhaka Tribune that no attention had been given to the actual demands while purchasing most of these machines that are worth hundreds of millions.
He alleged that sometimes machines had been bought only to spend allocated funds within a given period of time. He suggested that the patients would greatly benefit if the authorities could pay heed to machines that are in high demand when procuring them
DGHS Director General Professor Khondaker Md Shefyetullah said a decision had been taken to not buy any heavy machine for upazila level hospitals from now on.
He also said the directorate had been mulling purchases down to only light and simple equipment so that patients could get minimum diagnostic facilities at the upazila level hospitals.
Prof Shefayetullah admitted that hundreds of out of order machines are lying idle at these hospitals. He said the authorities have decided to strictly scrutinise the contractors’ credentials before giving any order.