Hospital care during Eid holidays

What a team of our correspondents did was to take time out of Eid holidays and visit three top government hospitals, two in the capital and one in Chittagong. What they found out may not have been surprising by past standards. In fact, it has only confirmed what's pretty much public knowledge about hospitals performing too nominally for any public good during holidays.

Of course, doctors ,specialists , nurses and other ancillary hospital staff  would  celebrate Eid with a fervour that befits their high calling .We understand that  the hospital management and the heads of departments  draw up duty rosters, placing members of other communities on duty during Eid holidays.  But this cannot by itself be sufficient to cope with all the ward duties, let alone handle emergencies. Take the case of Fazlul Haque. Having  been run over by a bus, his right arm had to be amputated; but instead of being moved to a post-operative unit, he was kept at the general ward.

All this underscores the need for adequate, fail-safe contingency arrangements to be planned out and put in place in hospitals during vacations. After all, the OPDs are shuttered down. That is all the more reason why authorities must ensure that critical cases are not turned away or otherwise neglected at grave risk to their lives.         

For, just as illnesses don't go on vacation so mustn't the ethical obligations of senior management of hospitals be sent on holidays.