The High Court on Monday asked the health secretary and director general of the Directorate General of Health Services to form an independent committee headed by a physician to inquire into the complaint of medical negligence that allegedly led to the death of Raahib Reza at a city hospital on February 19.

Raahib, 31, an IT consultant and product manager at Star Tech, died in Labaid Hospital due to negligence and wrong treatment by the physicians of the hospital, according to a writ petition filed by the victim’s parents Md Rezaul Haque and Niveen Reza and the deceased’s wife Tasmia Afroz.

The petitioners sought Tk 12 crore in compensation from Labaid Hospital, considering the deceased’s income as an IT expert.

The court asked the DG health directorate to form the committee composed of at least five health experts and a lawyer and submit a probe report in three months.

The court also asked the health ministry, DG health directorate and Bangladesh Medical and Dental Council chief to explain why they would not be directed to form a medical board to deal with the complaints and compensation claims relating to medical negligence causing frequent death of patients.

The High Court observed that such a medical board should be operated with the government funding to deal with medical negligence cases and also to pay compensations to the victims’ families whose claims would be proved valid.

The court asked the authorities to explain in four weeks the failure of the government authorities to take action against the Labaid hospital managing director and endoscopist Mamun Al Mahtab Shwapnil for their alleged gross negligence that led to Raahib Reza’s untimely death.

Having compared the private hospitals’ bed charges and other medical bills with that of the five star hotels, the HC observed that despite being charged so high patients are not getting quality medical treatment.

The court further said that the government is promoting private hospitals, while in the public hospitals physicians are not regularly available.

The court also observed that the physicians in the private hospitals often prescribe unnecessary medical tests and antibiotic medicines to get commission from the diagnostic centres and pharmaceutical companies.

The court came up with the remarks after Raahib’s family lawyer Rashna Imam told the court that the health directorate would cooperate with the family if the probe is ordered.

Rashna told the court that Raahib Reza, who was a promising IT expert, died in three days after undergoing the endoscopy test.

She also informed the court that Raahib’s medical board in its prescription recommended no endoscopy with injected anaesthesia as he was overweight.

‘But the medical personnel at the hospital injected anaesthesia,’ she said.

Soon Raahib’s physical condition deteriorated, but he was not monitored until he was shifted to the ICU of the hospital.

Labaid Group public relations officer Chowdhury Meher E Khuda said that Professor Mamun-Al-Mahtab Shwapnil conducted the endoscopy when the patient suffered a cardiac arrest.