Main Page «
Front Page «
Metro «
Business «
International «
Sports «
National «
Editorial «
Op-Ed «
Timeout «
Letters «

Archive «
Launch Supplement «
Special Supplements «

Most of the private clinics in Tangail town are in a shambles due to lack of sufficient staff, including doctors and nurses, and medical equipments.
   These organisations in many cases cannot provide healthcare of minimum standard, it is alleged.
   Unwanted situations resulting from death of patients or deterioration of their conditions due to negligence or incapability of the hospital managements are commonplace.
   An employee of the district Telephone and Telegraph office requesting anonymity told New Age that some of the clinics were dens of local criminals as a many of them were owned by local influential people.
   People of the town and different upazilas of the district have to suffer a lot in finding out their required treatment as the services in the Mirzapur Kumudini Medical College Hospital and the 300-bed Tangail General Hospital are also of low quality.
   The civil surgeon of Tangail, Dr Abu Taher, said a total of 45 clinics were in operation in the town. Very few of them are running business without registration. They include Monowara Clinic and Shaheen Dental Clinic at Akurtakurpara.
   Most of them have no specialist doctors of their own. They hire consultants of
   different disciplines from the state-run Tangail General Hospital and other public hospitals.
   The agonies of the post-operative patients in these clinics also defy description.
   The surgeon hired from outside leaves the clinic soon after performing an operation. The patient operated upon
   has nobody at hand to look after when he or she develops any post-operative complications.
   The agents of the private clinics keep close contact with the doctors of the district general hospital and the upazila health complexes.
   The doctors are rewarded financially for referring patients to the clinics, local people said.
   They further said that these clinics employed untrained nurses to cut their expenditures.
   These nurses have no experience of administering proper dosage of medicine to the patients in proper time.
   There are also allegations that low quality medicines are supplied to the patients though handsome amount is taken from them in the name of good treatment.
   Some clinics have their own drugstores where they sell medicines at high rate.
   Many of the clinics are one-man bands where the owners are doctors and perform all the role of different sections.
   Even sometimes, they use office staff as aide in the operation theatre and other sections.
   At Sonya Clinic, Dr Juthi uses ward boy Babu as an anesthesia specialist on regular basis.
   If attendants of the patients raise complaint, they are to be harassed by the musclemen of the clinic authority.
   A patient named Ratan Kumar Basak, 25, of village Pathrail under Delduar upazila, had been admitted to the Sefa Clinic in the Old Bus Stand area on October 1.
   His guardians later narrated to this correspondent how the management of the clinic cheated them.
   Selina Begum, 40, wife of Abdul Khaleq, of village Ghala under sadar upazila, had been admitted to the Samsul Haque Memorial Hospital on October 3 for her gall bladder operation.
   An unknown doctor performed the operation although in the contract form it was clearly mentioned that a renowned surgeon would do it.
   The clinic management paid paltry fee to the unknown doctor although it realised a big amount of money from the husband of Selina for her operation.
   The clinic owners appoint brokers to lure patients. Most of the clinics depend on brokers for getting patients. They are: Sonya Clinic and Amina Clinic in the New Bus Terminal area, Fare Clinic on the Mymensingh Road, Seba Clinic and Sefa Clinic in the Old Bus Stand area, Medico at Registry Para and Samsul Haque Memorial Clinic at Thana Para.

Four out of eight sea trucks deployed by the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation on coastal routes went out of order, making journeys through rough rivers and sea risky.
   The problem will be intensified within next three or four weeks when there will be tremendous rush of home-bound passengers ahead of Eid-ul Azha, passengers said.
   The sea trucks often go out of order due to poor maintenance of the BIWTC and private operators that took the vessels on lease, dockyard sources said. Repair works take long time due to scarce supply of spare parts, they said.
   The state-owned BIWTC procured the vessels locally or under foreign credit schemes and pressed those into service to make journeys safer through turbulent river estuaries and rough coastal routes.
   Four sea trucks, the ST Khizir 1-4, were built in a private in 2000-2001 in Chittagong.
   Now the ST Khizir 3 and 4 are under repair in the BIWTC dockyards.
   Four other sea trucks, the ST Khizir 5 to 8, were collected from China in 2002 under a credit scheme.
   The ST Khizir 5 is out of order and has been awaiting repair in the dockyard since October 15.
   The ST Khizir 7 has been withdrawn on October 23 after the lessee stopped its operation saying that it was incurring losses.
   BIWTC chairman ASM Ali Kabir said immediate steps would be taken to put in service of all the sea trucks on the coastal routes.

The blacksmiths in Jhenaidah are passing their days in acute economic hardships with the slump in their business.
   Many of their community have already left their ancestral profession as they failed to survive with the meagre income they make.
   The prices of the raw materials like steel, iron, charcoal and other necessary inputs have risen abnormally increasing the production cost of iron goods.
   According to the blacksmiths, one maund (37.3 kilograms) of highest quality charcoal was sold between Tk 70 to Tk 80 few years ago while now it is selling at Tk 350 to Tk 400.
   Indrajit Roy, 37, of village Korapara in sadar upazila, said he was passing his worst days in the recent times.
   ‘I am thinking to change my profession’, he said.
   Dulal Chandra Adhikari, 54, of the same area, echoed the same feelings.
   ‘We used to run our family selling agriculture equipment to farmers’; he said, adding that the demand of the tools has reduced now-a-days.
   The blacksmiths also face problems in collecting raw iron. They have to purchase it from the district headquarters at high price.
   These raw irons are mainly the scraps of the broken ships being brought from Chittagong. Smuggled Indian raw irons of lower quality are also available in the local markets, the blacksmiths said.
   Plastic-made household items have almost captured the market replacing the stuffs made by the blacksmith at their shops, they regretted.
   They are facing lower demand of their products as the plastic goods are cheaper and more attractive.
   Certain household items like bucket and water container have lost their market altogether, some blacksmiths said.

Transport workers on Sunday blocked the Dhaka-Aricha Highway for an hour protesting at assault on the driver and helper of a truck by policemen in Manikganj.
   The assaulted truck driver Rabiul and helper Salam said the traffic police led by a sergeant gave them a signal to stop the truck at the Borangail police outpost and demanded Tk 200 from them as toll for passing the road.
   They gave the policemen Tk 100 and drove away refusing to pay the rest.
   The policemen caught them at Paturia truck terminal and beat up them.
   Hearing the news, transport workers of the terminal blocked the road for about an hour causing a tailback at both the sides of the road.
   Later, the police superintendent of Manikganj, Sheikh Muhammad Maruf Hasan, went to the spot and brought the situation under control.
   The police also arrested 13 people in this connection. They are Bazlu, Foysal, Shahin, Samsul, Jabed Sheikh, Halim, Kalu, Mehedi, Jhantu, Obaidur, Faruk and the truck driver Rabiul and helper Salam. A case was filed in this connection.

A gang of robbers stabbed an expatriate to death and took away cash and valuables worth about Tk 12 lakh from his residence at Halimpur under Rangunia upazila in Chittagong on Sunday.
   The victim was Jahangir Alam, 28. He had returned home from a country in the Middle East to enjoy his vacation.
   The police said the gang entered the house Jahangir at about 2:30pm and took away cash, valuables and 19 tolas of gold ornaments keeping the house residence at gun point.
   They stabbed Jahangir
   when he tried to resist them and left the scene with the booties.
   He was taken to the Chittagong Medical College Hospital where he died.

A man was hacked to death at village Nohali under Gongachara upazila in Rangpur on Sunday.
   The deceased is Aminur Rhaman, 52.
   The police said some unidentified assailants had attacked him with sharp weapons when he was returning home. He died on the spot.
   The police said he might have been killed over previous enmity.
   The body was sent to the Rangpur Medical College Hospital for a post-mortem examination.

The police found a sex worker dead at Kandapara brothel in Tangail Sunday morning.
   The deceased was identified as Ruma of village Komorkhali under Betagi upazila in Narayanganj.
   Officer-in-Charge of Tangail sadar police station Ashraf Hosen said some prostitutes of the brothel found her body lying in pool of blood and informed them.
   The police quoting deceased’s neighbour Farzana said an unidentified had client hired Ruma for Tk 600 for the night.
   She might have been killed by the client, the police suspected.
   A case was filed.