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Lone Burn Unit at DMCH - Part II

Job insecurity haunts docs, staffs unpaid for months

DURDANA GHIAS
Uncertainty has gripped the Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) born unit due to manpower shortage. Many of die skilled doctors have left die unit due to job insecurity.
At present the unit has 29 staff including 10 doctors, 13 nurses. 1 physiotherapist and 2 OT technicians against 78 posts advertised in the beginning of the project in 1998.
The project ended in 2003 and since then their job has been hanging in the balance due to the government's indecision over regularising their service.
The payment of salaries of 13 senior nurses and 7 other staffs has become irregular for the last five months as the government has not transferred the project from the development budget to the revenue budget
"As 1 am not getting salary for the last five months I have to maintain my family by borrow-ing money," said Md Asaduzzaman, a senior staff nurse of the unit
There were 22 nurses under the project but many of them left the unit due to job insecurity, he added.
Insufficient number of doctors and other staff are struggling to provide treatment for the huge number of patients coming to the unit every day from across the country.
There are 23 duty doctors, including 20 deputed ones, who have to do postoperative duties, emergency duties, outdoor duties (from 8:00am to 2:30pm) and ward duties. Besides, they have to assist at least 8 to 10 operations a day.
"The number of medical officers is not enough to attend all patients. For an example in a shift from 2:30pm to 8:30pm there remains only two medical officers for the entire facility. It becomes almost impossible for them to attend all the patients at a time," said a medical officer.
Besides attending over 200 inpatients, these doctors have to treat around 100 outpatients everyday.
Apart from the project staff, there are 37 doctors and 11 nurses on deputation but they are not skilled and trained like the project staff, said doctors at the unit.
"Deputation is not a solution to this problem. We need to regularise our own skilled staff by taking the project to revenue budget," said Dr Samanta Lal Sen, head of the unit.
"We need at least one doctor for 10 patients and one nurse for each patient but here in some shifts we have only one nurse for 70 patients," said Dr Sen. "To attend all the patients and run the unit properly we need at least 200 staff including 50 doctors and 80 nurses.”
The staffs recruited under the project have become frustrated due to job insecurity and nonpayment of salaries. "Salary is a minimum requirement of an employee. How can I serve my patients when I don't have money to buy baby food for my child?" said a nurse.
"I don't know whether my job will be regularised as the government is now asking us to sit for exams again," said a medical officer of the project.
Contacted, Dr Khandakar Shawkat Hossain, joint secretary of the establishment ministry, explained that for transferring a development project to revenue budget they need to fulfil the staff recruitment criteria as per Public Service Commission (PSC) rules.
“So all the project staffs have to sit for exam again. Their age limit must conform to PSC rules. This is applicable for all development projects including the burn unit," he said.
But Dr Sen, head of the unit, said, “"Why my skilled staff will have to sit for an exam again when they already know how to treat a bum patient?" said Dr Sen.
According to hospital sources, the burn unit project ended in 2003 and then it was placed under Improved Hospital Management programme under Directorate General of Health.
But it was not taken to revenue budget as no project ending after July 1997 was transferred.
Dr Khandakar Shawkat Hossain said the staffs of a development project lose their job at the end of the project period. The staff’s appointment letters are considered as resignation letters.
Asked why an important project like the DMCH burn unit kept under development budget he termed the situation 'unfortunate' and sympathised with the project staffs.
“The whole situation is very unfortunate. All we can do is to create new posts. But we cannot transfer it to revenue. We have to comply with the rules. It can be relaxed only by the cabinet," said Dr Shawkat.
However, eight projects of that time period including National Asthma Centre, Alternative Medical Care, Filariasis and a 20-bed hospital at Char Algi in Noakhali were transferred to revenue budget, said sources.
"How many people of this country suffer from Filaria and asthma and how many of them receive alternative medical care? Is a 20-bed hospital more important than the 100-bed burn unit project?" said a medical officer of the DMCH bum unit.