BSMMU introduces specialised consultation service for patients
More patients come, from more distant places every day. And the number rises every other day to take the “evening specialised consultation service” at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University.
October 1, the first day of the service, saw 89 patients. As the number crossed the 200 mark in the last few days, the authorities responded by opening more departments.
The evening service starts after the regular outdoor patient department closes at 2:00pm. Specialised doctors, particularly professors and associate professors, see patients between 3:00pm and 6:00pm for Tk 200 each. The service is available every day except for Friday.
The BSMMU came up with the service against the backdrop of doctors facing criticism for their preference in seeing patients at private chambers than in public hospitals.
“This is a magnificent idea. I’ve been suffering from a throat problem for two months but I’m too poor to afford a specialised doctor. Now I’ve an opportunity,” said 40-year-old Begum, who came from Nampara in Genda.
“A specialised doctor charges Tk 800-1,000 for a visit,” she said, adding that sometimes it takes even three months to get an appointment.
She learnt about the service on television. Before coming to the BSMMU, she saw a local doctor but the medication failed to heal her throat.
At present, patients are served under seven departments — medicine, paediatrics, ENT, gynaecology, skin and sex diseases, physical medicine and cardiology. The authorities are planning to open more departments including haematology and neuro-medicine.
“We want to make medical service available to the people who need it the most,” said BSMMU Vice-chancellor Prof Pran Gopal Datta.
During a visit on Sunday around 12:00noon, this correspondent saw many patients waiting to see the doctors. They generally hailed the initiative but said the service lacks coordination.
“Please write down for me the departments under which treatment is being provided. I want to bring my mother soon,” said Beauty Sultana of Tangail. On Sunday, she brought her 78-year-old father.
Ekhlas Uddin read about the service in newspaper and came all the way from Gazipur.
“It feels great. The idea is at once unique and rewarding for me as a doctor,” said Prof Saleha Begum Chowdhury, a gynaecologist at BSMMU.
Hospital Director Brig Gen Abdul Majid Bhuiyan said people are coming from as far as Nilphamari and Rajshahi.
“We’re thinking about institutionalising the service so it never stops,” he said.
Sources at the hospital, however, said some doctors are unwilling to continue the service, as it hampers their private practice.
“Many don’t like to have their unquestioned independence compromised,” said Pran Gopal referring to the doctors who work at the hospital for six hours a day and then go to their private chambers.
BSMMU has about 200 professors and associate professors.
However, the hospital director said there is nothing to worry. “The service is not going to be stopped anyway. And if our initiative encourages other hospitals, many people will be benefited,” he told The Daily Star.
-With The Daily Star input
