At 11 o’clock on a Thursday morning, a long queue of young doctors could be seen in front of the Mohakhali office in the capital of the director general of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
They were all government employees working in the various upazila health complexes and union sub-centres out of Dhaka.
They had all been waiting since 9am to meet the DGHS boss.
At one point, one of them was seen entering the office hurriedly and asking for the whereabouts of the director general.
When the office staff told him that they did not know when he would be available, the young doctor, mentioning the name of an influential minister, said the minister had been trying to catch the DGHS director general on the phone for three days.
When this correspondent asked why he had wanted to meet the director general, the young doctor said he had been working in the villages for a long time and now he wanted to come back to Dhaka by getting transferred to a “training post.”
He then muttered almost inaudibly: “You [this correspondent] know it is hard to get a posting without recommendations. That is why I have got a recommendation from the communication minister.”
Before leaving the office, he said all the other people waiting outside had come with the same purpose.
Dhaka Tribune has learnt that more than a hundred “training posts” of five categories – including registrar, assistant registrar, indoor medical officer, emergency medical officer and medical officer – are currently vacant in the various medical college and specialised hospitals and institutes in the capital.
Sources in the DGHS said doctors working at the grassroots levels have been desperately trying to get transferred in these training posts.
The process of posting began on July 1 and scores of young doctors employed in the rural areas have since been thronging the DGHS office, all apparently with strong recommendations from influential individuals like ministers, state ministers, advisors, lawmakers, politicians, secretaries, army officers and leaders of the ruling party-backed doctors’ associations.
Seeking anonymity, a DGHS official told the Dhaka Tribune that they had so far received more than 400 recommendations up against the hundred vacancies.
He said not only are these influential figures giving recommendations, many had called up the DGHS office and tried to press demands for giving a posting to their favoured candidates.
The DGHS had managed to give posting to only about 25 doctors on July 4, thanks to the torrential recommendations, the official said.
Other sources said these 25 doctors all had really strong recommendations.
On Thursday, an apparently furious Health Minister AFM Ruhul Haque reportedly ordered for halting the posting process for the time being.
He also reportedly told an officer that everyday lawmakers from various constituencies grill him in parliament with complaints that finding doctors in the rural areas had become really difficult.
Dhaka Tribune has also learnt that there is a specific set of regulations that governs the posting process.
Regulations say for getting transferred, a doctor must take approval from his or her reporting boss and file application through the civil surgeon and the divisional officer of the DGHS.
A director of the DGHS informed that for being able to go abroad for higher studies with government funding, it is mandatory for doctors to get trained in these posts.
Another responsible DGHS official, seeking anonymity, said despite all the recommendations, they had been trying their level best to choose the doctors on the basis of seniority and capability.
