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Illegal workers reign supreme at DMCH

TAWFIQUE ALI
Illegal workers reign unchallenged at Dhaka Medical College Hospital's emergency unit. They lead patients from the entrance to the emergency doctor, escort them to the appropriate wards, collect references, push trolleys and help those who cannot walk.
They charge for their services, with negotiations taking place in the corridors. Charges are dependent on what they think vulnerable patients or their families will pay.
The unauthorised workers mingle with the hospital's fourth class employees who wear neither uniforms nor name tags.
Police and SB personnel deployed at the hospital premises ignore them.
In a visit to the emergency unit on July 30 and 31, this correspondent
found a band of 15 to 20 youths -some wearing lungis and with cellular phones- largely in charge of the entire process of admitting patients, guiding them to the wards, and taking them for pathology tests.
As soon as patients reach the hospital entrance, whether or not they are accompanied by relatives, the youths take over.
They go about their business at the emergency admission counter, along the corridors, and in the wards as though they are members of staff.
"Some are staff and some are outsiders whose relatives work here," said the Emergency Medical Officer on the morning shift on July 30.
"They are sons and wards of hospital staff," said the gate man, Ali.
They often carry or help badly
injured casualty patients around the hospital, because trolleys are a rarity at the emergency unit.
I saw one unconscious patient with a severe injury to his right eye fall to the floor while being dragged by two unofficial workers.
Later I saw the injured patient lying unconscious and unattended on a wooden table outside an operating theatre.
At 1:30 in the afternoon, I saw one of the "outsiders" intercept and insist on accompanying an ambulance as it left the hospital with an unconscious woman and her son, Muzahid. They had been told by a doctor to go for an X-ray in town because the hospital was unable to provide the service.
The outsider identified himself
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as Md. Hossain and claimed to be an employee of the emergency unit.
"I was asked to accompany the patient by the doctor with spectacles on ward No.30," he said.
An emergency unit worker, Sunnat, identified Hossain as "staff" from ward No.31.
Officials say the hospital is beset by crises caused by mismanagement, inefficiency and lack of government commitment.
In addition, staff shortages make it hard for workers to cope with the daily onrush of patients, which at more than 1,600 is double the hospital's capacity of 800 places.
Twelve wardboys work three shifts in a 24-hour period at the emergency unit. The workload for four boys a shift is too much.
That is why outsiders take advantage of the situation, admit hospital officials. "We just keep our eyes closed to what is happening all around."
The hospital has been operating like this for years despite repeated public complaints.