Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has urged government physicians to restrain themselves from excessive private practice as it makes their tempers vulnerable to outbursts.
“You need to think how much pressure you can take. It’s quite natural to lose your temper when you’re doing government jobs all day long and then going for private practice at night,” she said.
The prime minister said this while inaugurating the National Institute of Advanced Nursing Education and Research (NIANER), the only institute in the country that will provide higher education on nursing, in Dhaka’s Mugda area on Saturday.
“We’ve raised the salaries and allowances in government jobs. We’ve increased it by 123 percent,” she said.
Sheikh Hasina, however, said the number of patients in the country, compared to the number of doctors and nurses, is very high.
“I won’t blame you (doctors and nurses), we’ve got a huge population, you have to take so much pressure. So, it’s very tough to tame your temper,” she said.
Hasina said the attitude of providing services to patients is the main thing in medical service.
“Half the patients feel better when doctors and nurses talk to them politely and with sympathy.”
She mentioned that sincerity and responsibility are the most important things in providing medical services to patients.
The prime minister also pointed out the problems of diagnosis in medical services in Bangladesh, and pointed to instances of misdiagnosis being a problem.
Stressing the importance of creating skilled labor in this field, she said, “You just tell us what we need to do and we’ll do the rest.”
Hasina said it will not be possible to prevent patients from going to Singapore, Bangkok and India unless a proper diagnosis system is in place in the country. “If they can, why can’t we? This question crosses my mind repeatedly. We have to do that. We have to provide that standard of medical facilities.”
The prime minister asked all concerned to gather the experience and strength for providing better medical treatment to patients.
Talking about the just-launched Bangabandhu Satellite-1, she said Bangladesh attained a new height in the world arena with this. “We’ve scaled up our position in the world as an independent country.”
She mentioned that the satellite was successfully launched from the Kennedy Space Centre, and Bangladesh now has a presence in space, as well.
Hasina said this dream materialized because of her continuing to be in power.
“The people of the country got their independence through voting for Boat. Awami League could form the government because the people cast their votes for them, the government has taken massive works for the overall development of the country, and as a result we’ve been able to take Bangladesh to space,” she said.
Hasina said the satellite will be used for various purposes for the country, apart from providing entertainment. She said: “This satellite will be very useful in education, entertainment, and healthcare, and it will be used during various natural calamities for gathering information.”
She said Digital Bangladesh is enriched with modern technologies. “We are the 57th country in the world to launch the satellite,” she said.
