Rajshahi Medical College Hospital: Patients get less than half of prescribed fish with meal

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Patients at Rajshahi Medical College Hospital (RMCH) are served less than half of the prescribed quantity of fish with meal.

The staggering information was revealed as a mobile court conducted a drive at the hospital canteen on Tuesday night.

Raiding the kitchen at dinner time, the mobile court found each piece of fish, ready for serving the patients, weighed around 30 gram whereas a patient is entitled to get 80-gram fish as per official order.

Executive Magistrate Zahid Hossain Siddik, who led the drive, fined Abdul Mannan, a supervisor of the kitchen, Tk 10,000 for supplying lower amount of fish dishes to the patients.

The drive was conducted under the joint initiative of the district administration, Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institute (BSTI) and Consumers Association of Bangladesh.

Supply of low quality meal has become a usual matter and the food often stinks, RMCH patients told the court.

A deputy director of RMCH, who accompanied the mobile court during the drive, however declined to take responsibility for supply of lower amount of fish, saying, "The kitchen authority has been given the task to ensure supply of required quantity of fish to the patients."

Kitchen supervisor Abdul Mannan said the fish lost weight when it was cooked while the court observed that it was the kitchen authority's responsibility to supply '80-gram cooked fish' to each of the patients.

The mobile court also fined the management of the doctors' canteen Tk 5000 for working in an unhygienic and substandard condition.

The court observed that condition of the doctors' canteen inside the hospital was worse than that of many roadside restaurants.

The mobile court also fined Shamim Sweets Tk 20,000 for selling substandard sweets, and Nabarup Mistanno Bhandar Tk 10,000 for selling sweets that were polluted by flies.

The court also fined Habnab Chinese Restaurant Tk 5000 and Shamim Canteen Tk 5000 for not maintaining hygiene.

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