It is very dismaying to note that Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery has fallen into a state of mismanagement and corruption seriously affecting the treatment of the patient.
According to a daily report yesterday, irregularities in procurement, recruitment and supply are hampering the Institute’s smooth activities.
The assistant director of the Burn Institute is allegedly leading a syndicate that is responsible for all the irregularities in the Institute that had a reputation of sort in the country and abroad.
The doctors, nurses and officials of the hospital have shown their anger and frustration over this development and very positively demanded an investigation into corruption and irregularities.
Unlike other public health centers, Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery has gained wide appreciation in the outside world by providing standard medical services.
Hence is the dissatisfaction of concerned people of the hospital as well as the patients who visit the place for treatment. It has been alleged that mismanagement has gripped the three canteens of the hospitals and no care is taken of the medicines that were bought spending crores of taka.
Recently, a pharmacist who was a key person of the syndicate at the Institute was reportedly caught with a truck full of government medicines in Bakshibazar.
It has also surfaced that surgical supplies of worth Tk 15 crore were only on paper, but not in reality.
To save this National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery from falling into further disrepute and raising the treatment standard there, it is immediately necessary to bust the syndicate and initiate a thorough investigation into the alleged irregularities.
One thing must be mentioned here. In most cases, it is politically linked people who form syndicates everywhere and make common people victims of their fraud and the government is often found to be reluctant to take action against them.
It is very likely that the National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery has also become a victim of this nature.
If the relevant authorities including the health ministry fail to stop the ongoing corruption and irregularities and mismanagement, this Institute will have to face the same fate like other public health centres.
