Brokers of private medical clinics and hospitals have allegedly overrun the Faridpur Medical College and Hospital.
Close circuit cameras were set up at more than one places but they hardly work to prevent the prevalence of the brokers at the hospital.
Several nurses, doctors and third-level employees abet the brokers’ syndicate, toughening it to prevent the malpractice.
The brokers usually target the patients from remotest areas in the greater Faridpur because they can be easily lured out to private clinics.
Seeking anonymity, a few doctors said there were brokers everywhere at the hospital. They surrounded the patients and their relatives whenever they came to get admitted to this public hospital.
They added that some initiatives had been taken in the past to drive them out of the hospital but they had gone in vain because some influential quarters backed the brokers’ syndicate here.
The correspondent visited the hospital around 9:15am on Saturday and found a crowd in front of the hospital.
He went there and found the brokers surrounding a patient with head injuries and his relatives. They were advising the relatives not to admit the patient at the hospital because it involves police harassment.
The patient was then admitted to a private clinic near the hospital.
Forty-two-year-old Kamruzzaman from Purbokhabashpur of Sadar upazila told this correspondent yesterday that he came to this hospital with a passers-by who suffered head injuries in a road crash around 5pm on Thursday.
After he came in, he was suggested by the hospital staff that he should take the patient to some private clinic because there was no doctors right then.
“Meanwhile, some brokers surrounded and told me to take the patient to a private clinic. However, I did not listen to them and took the patient to Provati Private Medical Hospital of my own accord,” he said.
There are at least seven to eight private clinics and hospitals around the hospital.
The hospital is supposed to have a CT scan centre but unfortunately, it does not have such a specialised x-ray test and so patients with brain stroke and injuries have to count a hefty sum of money for such a test outside.
When Hospital Superintendent Md Omar Faruk was asked about this all, he said: “We are trying to resolve all these things. As part of our efforts, we formed a management committee on December 13 to drive the brokers out of the hospital.
“Besides, we recently submitted a work order for a CT scan. We hope, soon it would be added to the hospital,” he said.
