Lifeline for the poor

For the last few days Kolpona Begum from Nurpur in Pabna Sadar upazila has been suffering from high fever. She works as a cook in a student mess: the pay is meagre.

Kolpona doesn't often consult doctors because the medicine they prescribe is usually beyond her reach. But thanks to a private initiative, the Rauf Monjura Medical Centre in Singa of Pabna town, free checkups and medication are now available to the economically least advantaged. As such, Kolpona need not suffer alone.

“The government hospital does give free treatment,” she says, “but the medicine has to be bought. Often I don't take what they prescribe because it's unaffordable.”

For Kolpona, the medical centre is something of a lifeline.

Like her, 50-year-old housewife Summa Khatun from Gangkola village in the same upazila also relies on the clinic. She has chronic hypertension and ulcers.

“I was here a week ago for medicine,” she told The Daily Star late last month. “Today I have to re-fill my prescription. I'm really grateful that the medications are also free.”

US-based practitioner Dr Md Shahed Arju had set up the clinic on 8 April last year in memory of his maternal grandfather. It aims to provide the best possible medical care to the underprivileged.

“Unless their condition is life-threatening, those who are very poor do not go to government hospitals readily,” says the clinic's Director Akter Monira Begum.

“When they do go they often face discrimination and harassment. And because they do not get primary treatment serious illness can arise. Dr Shahed's plan is to develop this clinic into a 10-bed hospital with modern facilities. We have already submitted an application to the health directorate for permission to make that happen.”

It's not the only provider of free healthcare in Bangladesh, she continues. “Many charity organisations do that. But here the medicine is also free. We ensure that our patients can take a complete course of the drugs they need.”

Every three months or so Dr Shahed visits from the United States for a week to personally check on the clinic's activities and the wellbeing of patients, she adds.

“Currently we are able to offer regular checkups and primary treatment, along with medicine,” says the clinic's Manager Tawhid Khan. A retired doctor provides regular consultations six days per week, he informs, while specialist doctors from Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University in Dhaka and the BIRDEM hospital in Pabna town also attend the clinic on a weekly basis.

“Most of our patients are women and children,” said Dr Tarikul Alam of the clinic and also a former resident medical officer of Pabna Medical College. “If any patient's condition is diagnosed as critical we refer him to a government institution which has the appropriate facilities.”

The clinic has broad community support. “While healthcare is a right for all people,” says Ruqunul Hasan, a government employee from Singa, “the reality is that ultra poor people are rarely able to access existing services equitably. This initiative with free medicine included shines the light of hope. Dr Shahed has demonstrated the good that philanthropy can do. I hope more people stand up to follow his example.”