Mugda hospital director made OSD over mask scam

The government has moved against Dr Shahid Md Sadiqul Islam, the director of Dhaka Mugda Medical College Hospital, by removing him from active duty amid the controversy surrounding the quality of masks the hospital received from the Central Medical Stores Depot, or CMSD to combat the coronavirus crisis.

Sadiqul has been made an officer on special duty (OSD) even though his tenure at the hospital had seven months left to run. 

“I received an OSD letter on Apr 29. For now, I have been transferred to the health directorate,” Sadiqul told bdnews24.com.

Md Habibur Rahman Khan, additional secretary (administration) of the Health Services division, could not be reached for comment.

Meanwhile, in another order dated April 26, acting principal of Mugda hospital Dr Shah Golam Nabi was handed the director’s responsibilities in addition to his present role.

The use of N95 masks is crucial to safely treating COVID-19 patients and testing samples, according to the health directorate’s personal protective equipment guidelines.

However, the masks that the CMSD delivered to different hospitals by the end of March were surgical ones, despite the packets carrying the label of “N95”, creating confusion among the doctors before being reported in the media.

Saber Hossain Chowdhury, the chairman of the Mugda Medical College and Hospital’s governing body, sent a letter to the DGHS and CMSD director questioning the quality of the masks.

After looking into the matter, CMSD Director Brig Gen Md Shahidullah in a media briefing on Apr 2 confessed that the delivered masks were ordinary surgical masks and said the packets were labelled N95 “by mistake.”

When the matter came to the attention of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, she ordered the health authorities to monitor the supply of N-95 masks to hospitals during a video conference on April 20.

“The hospital received some medical equipment under the label of PPE. But they didn't seem to get the right equipment so this must be monitored.”

Later, as the CMSD director tried to offer an explanation, the prime minister stepped in and said, "The boxes had N95 masks written on them but you must still check if these are carrying the right products."

"You must monitor if the suppliers are providing or buying the correct materials. I'm sending the photo to the minister for scrutiny. Please keep an eye on this."

The health ministry, afterwards, formed a committee to monitor the supply following Hasina’s directive. The report was due on April 24. However, the committee asked for five more working days to submit the report.

"We had submitted the report to the appropriate authorities the day before yesterday," Md Saidur Rahman, additional secretary to DGHS and a probe committee member, told bdnews24.com.

However, he declined to talk about the contents of the report.

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