Raifa’s death: Nasim orders action against accused doctors

Secretariat Correspondent: Health Minister Mohammed Nasim on Sunday asked the Bangladesh Medical and Dental Council (BMDC) to take necessary action against the doctors who are responsible for the death of minor girl Raifa Khan due to wrong treatment at a private hospital in Chattogram.

The minister came up with the order while presiding over a meeting on the issue at the Secretariat following recommendations of two probe committees formed to investigate the death of the girl.

As per the recommendations of the probe reports, accused physicians are Dr Bidhan Roy Chowdhury, Dr Debashish Sengupta and Dr Shuvra De.

Two committees -- one by Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) and the other by Chattogram Civil Surgeon -- were formed to look into the death.

The probe bodies recently submitted their reports where they found the evidence of negligence in the treatment of Raifa and put forward some recommendations, including taking action against the accused physicians.

Earlier on Saturday (July 7), two accused physicians -- Dr Debashish Sengupta and Dr Shuvra De -- were fired over Raifa’s death following the probe reports.

Besides, the authorities decided not to call child specialist Dr Bidhan Roy Chowdhury to the hospital to avail of his service.

The meeting discussed in detail the reports of the two probe panels.

The Health Minister asked for removing irregularities over the Max Hospital licence within 15 days.

The meeting also decided to hang a signboard containing hotline numbers at every public and private hospital to avert any unwanted incident over wrong treatment.

DGHS Director General Prof Abul Kalam Azad, BMDC President Prof Dr Mohammod Shahidullah and Chattogram Civil Surgeon Azizur Rahman Siddique were present at the meeting.

Raifa Khan, 3, daughter of Rubel Khan, staff reporter of vernacular daily the Daily Samakal, died due to wrong treatment at Max Hospital and Diagnostic Centre in the port city on June 29.


risingbd/Dhaka/July 8, 2018/Noimuddin/AI