What could be more disheartening than the fact that imported medical equipment worth hundreds of millions of taka is ultimately being sold to scrap dealers by the kilogram?
The report published yesterday in Ittefaq has laid bare, in the starkest possible manner, the skeletal condition of our country's ailing healthcare sector.
This is not merely a case of shortsightedness; rather, it is a vivid testament to the extreme mismanagement of the health sector, rampant corruption, and the waste of public funds.
The Health Minister himself informed Parliament that no proper arrangements had been made to preserve or safeguard the medical equipment imported during the previous political administration.
In reality, these machines were procured in an unplanned manner with the ignoble objective of enriching commission-seekers. The tragic fate of two radiotherapy machines worth Tk 180 million, which remained unused for years in government hospitals in Khulna and Faridpur, is compelling evidence of this.
Likewise, many hospitals across the country possess X-ray machines but lack qualified technicians to operate them. Laboratory equipment worth millions of taka sits covered in dust because no laboratory technicians have been appointed to run them.
Year after year, these valuable machines remain locked in wooden crates until they become obsolete, unusable, and beyond repair.
The artificial shortage of technicians and the widespread dysfunction of medical equipment in government hospitals have, in effect, been allowed to persist so that private hospitals may benefit.
This is because a section of doctors, nurses, and technicians employed in public hospitals also engage in private practice at those facilities. Through collusion, they compel patients to undergo expensive diagnostic tests in private hospitals and diagnostic centers.
This unethical business could be curtailed if government-employed doctors, nurses, and technicians were prohibited from engaging in private practice at private hospitals.
If necessary, they could instead perform additional duties at government hospitals in the afternoons for reasonable compensation. However, they should not be permitted to work in private hospitals, clinics, or diagnostic centers.
According to existing regulations, they are not supposed to do so. Upon entering government service, they are required to sever professional ties with private, and even social, institutions.
Moreover, private healthcare facilities should be required to recruit their own full-time, permanent medical personnel rather than relying on part-time government employees; otherwise, their licenses should be revoked.
Government hospitals have procured ultrasonography machines, ECG machines, anesthesia equipment, ventilators, and other costly medical devices at enormous public expense.
Yet it is deeply regrettable that many of these remain locked away and unused for years. At the same time, unplanned procurement must also come to an end.
High-tech ICU equipment and scanners are often sent to hospitals that lack adequate electrical voltage or air-conditioning systems, making it inevitable that such machines will remain idle and eventually deteriorate.
In some rural hospitals, there are no surgeons capable of performing Caesarean sections, yet expensive modern operating theatre equipment has remained boxed up for years.
Such waste stems not only from poor planning but also from the financial interests of importers, bureaucrats, and middlemen who profit through excessive commissions.
Furthermore, there is a serious lack of effective coordination between the planning wing of the Directorate General of Health Services and hospitals at the field level.
Allegations persist that equipment is purchased merely to exhaust budget allocations and facilitate the misappropriation of public funds, even when there is no trained manpower available to operate it.
Meanwhile, despite the destruction of medical equipment worth hundreds of millions of taka through neglect, not a single bureaucrat, contractor, or administrator has been made an example through exemplary punishment.
This culture of impunity has institutionalized corruption. Therefore, a high-powered expert audit committee should be established under the Ministry of Health.
No new medical equipment should be approved for purchase unless there is accurate data on a hospital's physical infrastructure and the availability of skilled personnel.
In addition, a centralized online database should be created to monitor the operational status of equipment in every government hospital, enabling the public to see which machines are functional and which are not. Ultimately, medical equipment purchased with taxpayers' money must not be allowed to end up as scrap.
