Medical service in railway west zone limping
Doctors, staff, budget awfully scanty
Saidpur railway hospital has a barren look as the treatment centre, meant for providing medical service to departmental staff and their family members, miserably fails to serve its purpose due to acute shortage of doctors, nurses and medical equipment. Photo: STAR
Official medical service for the staff under Western Zone of Bangladesh Railway (BR) is limping due to shortage of doctors, employees, budget and other facilities. Once there were six hospitals with indoor and outdoor facilities and 12 outdoor dispensaries at different places under the Western Zone but five of the 12 outdoor dispensaries were closed down in 1994-95 as Asian Development Bank (ADB) suggested cost cutting, railway sources said. Posts of doctors were cut down from 50 to 34 as suggested by ADB. Presently, only 16 doctors are posted there. Officially, there are 30 posts of nurses and 55 ward boys in this zone but only 19 nurses and 11 ward boys are now working. Against the posts of 431 cleaners, only 190 are in service. Only seven outdoor dispensaries at Bonarpara, Teestamuk Ghat, Saidpur rail workshop, Parbotipur locomotive workshop, Iswardi, Rajbari and Khulna are in operation now. Six hospitals in this zone are somehow conducting operation at Saidpur, Parbotipur, Rajshahi, Pakshi, Lalmonirhat and Santahar. “In the 80s of the last century, activities of the railway department drastically shrank. Once busy Saidpur railway workshop became less lively as construction of new rail carriages totally stopped. Since then it is being used to repair rail coaches and wagons only," said Moksudul Momin, president of Bangladesh Sramik League Saidpur railway workshop unit. A section of railway officials prefer importing rail coaches than production in the country to 'earn commission', he said, adding that around 10-12 thousand officers and employees earlier worked in Saidpur rail workshop but now there is only about 2600-strong manpower there. According to BR's quarterly 'Newsletter', there are altogether 26,708 officers and employees in the department. Of them 11,000 are under the Western Zone. Taking into consideration their family members, each of 16 doctors has the responsibility to provide treatment to over three thousand patients on an average. The government allocation in medical sector of BR's Western Zone covers only 60-70% of the requirement, said sources at the head office of the Western Zone of BR at Rajshahi. In 2011-2012 fiscal year, allocation is about 11.44 crore while the allocation in last fiscal year was Tk 11.32 crore. Largest rail hospital in this zone having 90 beds is situated at Saidpur. It was established during the British period in 1885 and a good number foreign doctors and high-ranking European staff worked here. Now this hospital is facing acute manpower shortage. Only four are posted here against seven sanctioned posts. The numbers of working nurses and ward assistants are four and seven while there are ten and 14 posts for the positions. There is no 'aya' despite six sanctioned posts. "My daughter needed to undergo an appendicitis operation and for this she needed to do ultra sonogram and pathology test. I got the tests done at outside clinics for high cost as there is no pathologist and ultra sonogram system in the rail hospital,” said Abdul Hannan, a fitter of wagon shop department in Saidpur railway workshop. Divisional medical officer at Saidpur railway hospital Dr Anwar Hossain said “I have informed higher authorities of the matter several times but the situation is worsening day by day.” There are allegations that railway doctors do not get due promotion and regular pay scale in time while many doctors are yet to be regularised although they are serving for about 8-10 years.
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