DSCC dengue hotline helps little
DSCC launched a healthcare service for people infected with dengue and chikungunya on July 15
Sohel Rana with a higher-than-normal body temperature dialled to the Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) hotline as he feared being infected with dengue. After one-long-hour, a doctor responded and prescribed him some medicines widely used for flu treatment.
“Why would I take these without any diagnosis,” he asked the doctor over phone.
“Well, you have asked for suggestion and here it is. This is not my concern whether you follow it,” the doctor washed his hands off.
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Although the attitude was not professional – as termed by the Eskaton Garden resident – he was apparently lucky as DSCC responded!
Habibullah Habib and his wife even did not get any response after a series of attempts. They at last got admitted to a private hospital.
Such allegations are frequent against the city corporation. Meantime, DSCC medical officials said as they do not have dengue detection kit, they do not have much to do for the patients.
“The patients are not getting prompt response owing to some issues of the city corporation,” DSCC System Analyst and Head of ICT Abu Taiyeb Rokon said, claiming that those had been identified and efforts were on to fix them.
On July 15, the DSCC launched a healthcare service for people infected with dengue and chikungunya. It also introduced a hotline, 09611000999.
Sub-Assistant Community Medical Officers (SACMO) are tasked with the medicare.
One of the SACMOs, Dr Romen Mondol said he had visited four patients in 10 days. “Since the DSCC did not provide us with any blood test toolkit, I prescribed only antibiotics, paracetamol and Histacin,” he added.
In the face of numerous allegations, the DSCC now moves to appoint MBBS doctors to handle the dengue hotline.
Things will change with the appointments, hopes DSCC Mayor Sayeed Khokon.
“We are trying to provide better and prompt service,” the mayor told The Business Standard. “Everything will be okay soon.”
However, the gradually decreasing number of phone calls to the hotline might put the mayor in an unease. According to DSCC record, the hotline received 261 calls on Wednesday and only 150 calls till 4pm on Thursday.
