The Doctors Association of Bangladesh (DAB) association of doctors with martyr Zia’s spirits , has protested against the health ministry’s plan to launch a rural doctor training course, calling it an “unscientific idea” in the current modern medical services. The organization’s president, Professor Dr. Harun Al Rashid, and secretary general, Dr. Md. Zahirul Islam Shakil, outbursed this in a joint statement on Saturday (April 11). At the same time, they demanded a reconsideration of the issue of launching this training course.
Earlier, on April 8, Health Minister Sardar Md. Sakhawat Hossain Bakul informed the National Assembly about the initiative to launch the ‘Rural Doctor’ model in rural medical service. He said that the government is reviving the concept of ‘Rural Doctor’ with the aim of making primary healthcare accessible to the marginalized population. As part of this initiative, Local Medical Assistant and Family Planning (LMAF) trained workers will be included in the rural health system. The main objective of this project is to enhance the skills of rural doctors under the direction of Prime Minister Tarique Rahman and give them institutional recognition!
Protesting the Health Minister’s statement, the top leaders of DAB said that the High Court ruled on March 12 last year that no one other than those with MBBS or BDS degrees can use the title of doctor before their names. Due to the indiscriminate use of antibiotics by rural doctors in the past, antibiotics are currently becoming ineffective in our country. In addition, many people have died prematurely due to mistreatment by rural doctors. In such a situation, if the rural doctor training course is introduced again, it will create a wrong idea about doctors in the public mind.
The DAB leaders also said that where it is not possible to improve the quality of the currently substandard medical colleges, the process of closing down the activities is underway; there, introducing training courses for rural doctors is incompatible with the current modern medical science; which will set the current health system back wards again. Currently, the position of trained Community Health Care Provider (CHCP) is available in community clinics to provide healthcare to marginalized communities, so the DAB leaders believe that there is no need to introduce a rural doctor training course!
The other concerned experts request for reconsidering such a deadly decision.
