In an instance that betrays an abysmal indifference of the authorities, as we are informed through a report in this paper yesterday, as many as 36 men and women who have been working as voluntary staff at Lalmonirhat Sadar Hospital for years, are doing so without any recompense for their work. They are passing through a severe state of pecuniary privation, since they have received virtually nothing for their service, albeit “voluntary”. Understandably, there are no provisions for such volunteer service in government service manuals, but these volunteers had stepped forward on their own volition since the hospital was severely understaffed, as many public hospitals and health care centres are. It seems that the authorities have taken these “volunteers” for granted, since they are yet to put them on the regular payroll. Some are getting a laughable amount of Tk 1000 or 1500 per month, and that too after being many years in that position—some of them have been working for a decade or more.
To their credit, they have not discarded their patients and continue to attend to them, risking their lives during this pandemic. They are working at different sections of the hospital including the emergency department, operation theatre, surgery ward, paediatric ward and doctors’ chambers to help patients, distribute medicine and manage crowds.
A voluntary service is pro bono, and generally such service is provided by those who can afford the time and their own resources to provide a public good. But some offer their services, particularly public service, out of their own volition, and, most often moved by fellow feeling to meet the shortage of adequate personnel. And when it relates to government healthcare services, it assumes a special significance. All the more so when these persons are people of meagre means, which deserves the serious attention of the authorities.
We feel that these 36 volunteers should be absorbed into service and given their full remuneration, antedated if possible. It was their hope and should be fulfilled, especially given that all of them have required educational qualifications (some have Masters’ degrees) and the experience of on-the-job training as well. Given that there is also an acute shortage of trained hospital staff all over the country, which is all the more obvious during this crisis, absorbing these volunteers should not be too difficult.
