Is this how hospitals serve the marginalised?    

Last Thursday this city brought the nation face to face with an ugly reality -one that is shocking, disgraceful, outrageous and heart-wrenching too. The incident involves three health facilities' refusal to help a poor woman in labour because she did not have enough money to meet the expenses of delivery. When pleaded by the woman writhing in pain on the footpath, a young man reportedly took her to the Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH). But the DMCH refused to take care of her. So the young man took the woman to Sir Salimullah Medical College and Hospital from where she was also turned out. As a last resort, the young man took her to the Azimpur maternity centre. Here also the woman was denied attention an expectant mother needs at this crucial and agonising moment.

Cringing in pain, as reported, twice did the woman fall on the footpath right in front of the maternity centre. It was then the mother gave birth to a baby boy on the footpath. The baby survived barely a few minutes. All this while, the maternity staff played the role of passive onlookers. But passers-by were not indifferent. Agitated, they surrounded the dead baby until teams of law enforcement agencies arrived there. In fact, they informed the agencies of the incident and wanted to show how heartless the maternity staff was.

Here is a poor woman abandoned by her husband. She used to eke out a wretched living on the footpath near Golap Shah Mazar after her husband had left her six months ago. Why did the hospitals and maternity clinic turn her out when she needed the medical care most? All because, she was poor and a woman. Both are the victims of the worst discrimination in society here. Even the young man, a stranger to her, who was moved by her plight displayed he possessed a soul nobler than those who refused her the medical care at the crucial juncture of her life.

At that moment the woman had no other identity than a mother. The hospitals have brought disgrace to motherhood. Had she been treated as a mother, the baby might not have died like the way it did. No words can describe the pain, the trauma a woman in labour goes through. The DMCH which boasts treating abandoned babies brought there for treatment could not accept the mother about to give birth to a baby. Why? The mindlessness demonstrated does not go with the extra care doctors and nurses take to treat the abandoned babies. It is reported that the affection they develop for such babies during their stay in hospital transcends the boundary of professionalism.

Should the front desk of hospital be responsible for driving the woman out of the DMCH premise? This may be the case in all government hospitals. Apart from the emergency and ticket counters, there should be a most caring front desk which should be manned by people who can respond to such crises promptly. Their orientation should be different from those at the ticket counter or serving at the emergency wards. Not only are people in such places brutal, they are often involved in malpractices. Their connection with private health facilities is dubious. In exchange for commission they lure patients out to those facilities with the false hope of better attention and treatment.

This incident has brought shame on the nation. This should not be repeated. It has made a mockery of the slogan, 'health for all'. All the nation's achievements prove hollow if pitted against such a disgraceful incident. There is no atonement for it but at least measures can be taken to avoid similar happening in the future.