Physician served show cause notice for criticising health secretary
A physician of Noakhali 250-bed General Hospital has been served show cause notice for his Facebook status criticising the health ministry, Directorate General of Health Services and health secretary of Bangladesh for not providing N-95 mask and PPE to the physicians.
Abu Taher works as an assistant surgeon (anaesthetist) at the hospital.
The show cause notice, signed by the hospital supervisor Mohammad Farid Uddin Chowdhury, was issued on Saturday.
It asked the physician to respond to the notice with a written answer within three days as to why the hospital authorities would not recommend to the higher authorities to take divisional action against him.
Abu Taher’s Facebook status, published on 16 April, said, “I give treatment to a patient staying very close to him. I went to the hospital for everyday in the last one month. None of my department have got any N-95 mask. Why the health secretary, then, told a lie, saying he has been giving N-95 masks? And, he lied to none other than the prime minister? What would be the punishment of this lying? Two PPEs have been given to my department with eight employees in the last one month. But I have conducted more than 150 operations in that time.”
Speaking to Prothom Alo, Abu Taher on Saturday evening said, he has received the show-cause letter at noon.
Mentioning his unchanged stand on his Facebook post, the physician said, “There's not an iota of lie in what I’ve written. If the hospital has reserve of PPEs, why was it not given to our department? Besides, none of this hospital has got any N-95 mask.”
Abu Taher said as a citizen of the country he has every right to express his opinion. He said he is ready to receive any punishment for writing the truth.
The SBMCH physician also said following his Facebook post, the supervisor sent 50 pieces of surgical mask to him on Saturday morning. But until now, he has been buying masks for use at the workplace.
This correspondent phoned the hospital’s supervisor Mohammad Farid Uddin Chowdhury around 7:15pm on Saturday but the mobile phone was found switched off.