Not many

Its about time I aired my views of a breed of creatures that are called Bengali doctors / nurses spurned on by the events at Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College Hospital. See the Daily start article on 8/4/04.

Bangladesh is a country where there are so many medical professionals. I use the word professionals with a pinch of salt. One maybe be wondering why am I referring to them as creatures - well because if you put them in the league with humans then it would be ridiculing the human race. To be a bit more polite I'll refer to them as Bengdocs in this article because it is a distinct trait of Bengali/ Bangladeshi doctors/ nurses/ medical interns.

Bengdocs are supposed to be a section of society who are most educated, much like engineers, lawyers etc. Indeed, they are given world class education in medicine. If you go to the Sylhet Stadium, where the locals have turned the stadium shops into what you would class as a General Surgery or polyclinic in the West, you will see that most of the doctors have trained abroad. Now the training they undertook in the West will always include ethics, morals and phsycology. Sadly I have yet to come across Bengdocs with any of those in a skills in a positive manner.

As soon as you see a doc he is supposed to make you at ease from your discomfort. Yet the Bengdocs behave like animals with their harsh, abrasive language and behaviour. A vet does not behave like that to a sick animal in the West or even in Bangladesh for that matter the way they behave and treat their patients - even tho they are paying for the advise.

You see Bengdocs and nurses behave in such an awful manner whether you are in a private hospital or at the state hospital like the MAG Osmani in Sylhet. They are rude, unwilling to help and unsympathetic. As if someone forced them into the job. The nurses in the UK are not paid well. However they are ever so polite, go out of their way to help. Even when patients are rude to them they still remain polite as they understand that the patient is under duress due to some illness. Doctors behave in the same manner - if you can get hold of one!

So what has any of this got to do with MAG Osmani. Well an intern misbehaved with a pregnant woman. Which in return was returned with violence from patients. The hospital staff then went on strike and demonstrations. They even beat up a journalist. Just shows how much of a wild animals instinct's are within the mindset of the Bengdocs and nurses. Many patients died due to absence of treatment. It was the Bengdocs way of retaliating - 'touch any of ours rightly or wrongly - and lots of your will die'. Sadly human beings lost their lives due to the actions of sick, inhumane doctors/ nurses/ interns of the MAG Osmani. This isn't a one of case. This kind of story is repeated up and down the country.

This leads onto the nurses who are generally women. The other day I drove past a female college at the end of the day. Hundreds of girls were pouring out onto the street. I sighed and wondered how many of them will end up as nurses and doctors. Quite a lot I thought as its rather popular route for a girl in Bangladesh to take. Then the sad bit hit my mind. I wondered how many of them would take up their respective professions and treat the patients as human beings? How many would have morals and ethics that are expected of a human being in this line of work? I muttered to my self: 'Not many'.