Sohel Rana Babu, Bagerhat

Community Health Care Providers (CHCPs) of 211 community clinics in Bagerhat are not getting salary for seven months.

These workers who provide primary care to people in remote areas are suffering from extreme financial hardship due to non-payment of salary. Not only salary, but also regular supply of medicines has been stopped in some places. Again, the quantity of medicines regularly provided in some community clinics has been reduced. As a result, people in remote areas are not getting the desired service from this government institution providing primary care.

According to the information of the Bagerhat Civil Surgeon's Office, there are 214 community clinics in the district. Out of these, CHCP posts are vacant in 3 clinics.

211 CHCPs working in the remaining clinics have not been getting salary since July last year. They are frustrated as their salaries have not been paid for a long time. Some have stopped providing services at the clinic, some are providing comparatively less services. Some are not coming to the clinic regularly.

Local residents and CHCPs have demanded immediate payment to continue providing primary healthcare to the people of remote areas.

Md. Jahangir Hossain of Rajapur village in Bagerhat Sadar upazila said, "We, the people of the area, often come to Rajapur Community Clinic for minor illnesses. The lady (CHCP) here has not been paid for a long time. If that happens, she will not provide us with services."

Basanti Rani Das, who hopes to get treatment at Rahimabad Community Clinic, said, "We go to the community clinic for minor problems including fever, cold, diarrhea. However, we no longer get many medicines, including medicines for itching, as before." The doctor at the clinic said that the medicines have been reduced.

Sabina Yasmin, CHCP of Rahimabad Community Clinic in Bagerhat Sadar upazila, said, "We have not received salaries for almost 8 months. The family is going through a lot of hardship." Still, we are trying to provide the best service to the patients.

CHCP Md. Mizanur Rahman of Mukshite Community Clinic in the same upazila said, "We are continuing to provide medical services to the people of remote areas, even though we have not received salaries for a long time and are in a very difficult situation with our families. No one can even tell us how hard we are living without salaries.

Earlier, we used to provide 32 types of medicines, but now we only provide 20 types of medicines. This CHPP demanded that salaries be introduced as soon as possible and the quantity of medicines should be increased to ensure service to the patients.

CHCP Chadni of Rajapur Community Clinic said, "We have not been paid since July. Except on Fridays, we come to the clinic to provide service to the patients, spending 70-80 taka every day. We are very disappointed due to not receiving salaries. Our mentality is also not good. If our mentality is good, we can provide more services to the patients. He also demanded that medicines be provided regularly.

Anupam Rani Das, Assistant Community Medical Officer (SACMO), who provides services to patients at community clinics in accordance with specific rules for CHCPs, said, "We travel around and provide services to patients alongside CHCPs at different clinics, but we get regular salaries, and if our colleagues do not get salaries, then we also feel bad. Therefore, this officer demanded that the salaries of CHCPs be introduced to ensure the welfare of the clinic.

Meanwhile, during a field visit to different areas of Bagerhat Sadar Upazila, Kachua and Sharankholar Upazilas, several community clinics were found closed during the scheduled office hours.

Acting Civil Surgeon of Bagerhat, Dr. Md. Habibur Rahman said, community clinics used to run through a project earlier. In the middle of last year, community clinics were taken under a trust. For this, the necessary documents including the appointment letters of CHCPs have been sent to the trust office.

The current government will solve this problem soon. The common people will once again get services like before through community clinics.