The acute crisis of doctors at upazila health complexes around the country is a widely run issue in Bangladeshi media. The prime minister has often been heard asking doctors to stay in the rural areas and serve those who need it the most.
Even the upazila that the country’s president hails, is not free from such inadequacies. The health complexes in the three upazilas that comprise the former parliamentary constituency of current President Abdul Hamid, only have seven doctors up against the available posts for 49.
The health complexes at Itna, Ashtagram and Mithamoin upazilas of Kishoreganj are all separate 50-bed facilities where 49 doctors are supposed to be posted. Mithamoin, the home of the president, actually does not even have an Upazila Health and Family Planning Officer for supervising the overall healthcare situation in the area. The Mithamoin Upazila Health Complex has four medical officers only.
Dr Mahbub Iqbal, president of Bangladesh Medical Association’s Kishoreganj unit, told the Dhaka Tribune that he had been trying hard to get the authorities to recruit doctors in some of the vacant posts in the health complex at the president’s upazila.
“Although the country’s president hails from this area, nobody wants to stay. Most of the doctors, who had ever been posted in the area, got transferred to the capital or less remote areas by persuading high-ranked officials and political leaders,” Dr Mahbub regretted.
Seeking anonymity, several high-ranked officials of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) told the Dhaka Tribune that the three upazilas in Kishoreganj was just one small portion of a very large picture.
They said there are a total of 397 upazila health complexes around the country, of which 244 are 31-bed facilities and the remaining 153 have 50 beds. Depending on the accommodation arrangements, these complexes have posts for nine to 21 doctors each, including at least four specialists.
However, in reality, most of these health complexes do not even have the least number of doctors, let alone specialists, they added. The DGHS officials also said while the rural health centres were struggling with the crisis, some of the public healthcare facilities in the capital and the other major cities have many more doctors than required.
Dr Ruhul Forkan Siddique, a deputy director of DGHS, said there were a total of 24,000 posts for doctors under the health ministry, of which around 8,000 were vacant. Out of the rest, at least 4,000 doctors are never available as they remain busy attending training and academic courses at home and abroad or were made officers on special duty due to various reasons.
“Therefore, we have to depend on only 12,000 doctors to serve the government healthcare facilities in the country,” Dr Ruhul said. He admitted that the DGHS had always had to face a lot of problems in posting a doctor to an upazila health complex.
