Patients at public health centres, including Rajshahi Medical College Hospital, in the city are facing trouble because of the agents of physicians and clinics.
The agents take position at the entrance of public hospitals, bus stands, railway stations and other places to grab the patients and persuade them to go to their respective clinics or private chambers of physicians.
The first hurdle a patient has to cross to reach most physicians at Rajshahi Medical College Hospital are the agents who offer to fix appointments with the specialists — of course for a cut.
There have even been cases in which patients were not admitted to private clinics, run by unscrupulous physicians, because the patients did not approach through the agents, while regular patients burn a hole in their pockets paying the middlemen.
During a visit by the New Age correspondent on Monday, several dozens of these agents were seen at the main gate and other entrances to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital, Rajshahi Tuberculosis Hospital and Rajshahi Medical College Hospital’s dental unit.
Their modus operandi is simple: at the sight of patients, the agents surround them and ‘advise’ them against getting admitted to the hospital since healthcare was not a priority for the physicians there.
Thereafter, the agents ‘suggest’ many clinics with state-of-the-art facilities and 24-hour presence of specialist physicians and nurses at a ‘reasonable cost’, sources at several government hospitals said.
Since most patients, or their family members and attendants, are ignorant about medical details, the pressure tactic acts in many cases and the patients often approach the private clinics in desperation, many victimised patients’ relatives confirmed.
Sources said many physicians of Rajshahi Medical College Hospital and other government hospitals in Rajshahi carry on private practice at clinics, and the authorities at these clinics appoint the agents to get patients for a commission.
New Age has learnt that many government physicians with private practice and owners of the clinics they work in give the agents printed cards.
But sources said once a patient is admitted to a clinic or visits a doctor, the clinic authorities or the doctor takes away the agent’s card to hide their association with the agent and also to pay the agent his/her commission.
A female agent can be seen sitting outside one doctor’s chamber at RMCH near the outdoor patient’s ward. Any patient approaching the woman would be told that the doctor is busy but the patient can consult him at his private chamber.
The woman was caught by the police on several occasions but to no avail — she still carries out the same business outside the same doctor’s chamber.
According to sources in the hospital, the woman is paid a commission of Tk 50 per patient. Some rickshaw pullers are also working in Rajshahi city as commission agents of physicians.
A rickshaw puller, residing at city Asam Colony, told New Age that he was working in favour of a well-known gynaecologist who has a chamber at Zilia Medicare in the city.
`While a female patient with her attendants get down from a bus or trains, I reach to them and persuade them to go to Zilia Medicare,’ he said.
Tariful Islam, from Mohadevpur in Naogaon with his ailing wife Afroza Khatun, on Monday told New Age that they had decided to go Rajshahi Medical College Hospital but the rickshaw puller, carrying them, influenced them to go a private clinic.
‘The physician of the clinic, after visiting my wife, prescribed several “unnecessary” tests which were very expensive,’ he added.
Some physicians including Rajshahi Medical College orthopaedic Professor BK Dam also admitted the problems.
He told New Age that awareness among the patients and their guardians and also civil society men should be increased to check this malpractice.
When contacted, Rajshahi Medical College Hospital director Brigadier General Abdus Sabur, admitting the presence of agents, told New Age that the hospital authorities had formed a joint committee to wipe out this illegal business.
He said vigilance team, police men, members of special branch, medical staff and also member of the Directorate General Force of Intelligence are also working to stop these kinds of illegal practices.
-With New Age input
