Irresponsible healthcare system: Minister cannot disown his responsibility

NEWS media reported that Health Minister Mohammad Nasim on Wednesday disclosed that 3,000 doctors are now taking salaries without discharging their duties at government health facilities, another example of misappropriation of national exchequer.
Minister lambasted the doctors who do not want to work at health centres in rural areas but did not specifically told what types of actions his Ministry has taken against the physicians. The admission of such misdeed and unaccounted activities have become a fashion of the Ministers as we recently observed several Ministers disclosed such dismaying condition in their Ministries but no remedy has been taken or nobody resigns for their ineptness or negligence. The Minister must take the responsibility why the physicians do not discharge their duties and why they receive the salary from the taxpayers’ money.
We are surprised when the Minister said that he had ordered to identify the errant doctors, but the Ministry officials failed to provide their names. So, the basis of his disclosure is not valid or he lost the control to steer the Ministry.
There are about 21,000 government doctors in public health services. The government appointed 6,000 doctors on condition that they would have to be posted at rural health setups for at least two years. But many of them did not complete two-year tenure and managed to be transferred. How they manage the transfer, why not the Ministry made them responsible before disclosing data are unsolved big questions. Perhaps, politics plays foul and the Ministry inside is responsible for that.
Without establishing rule of law and accountability, the ailment of the country’s healthcare system would not be improved, how many doctors recruited is no matter. The Health Ministry and the Directorate General of Health Services should take the responsibility of the errant doctors. If the system fails, the Minister should resign.