In a surprise visit to 11 government hospitals and health complexes in eight districts including Dhaka yesterday, the Anti-Corruption Commission found 92 doctors out of a total of 230 absent at their workplaces.

“They [the doctors] were absent because they were busy with their private practice,” said Mohammad Munir Chowdhury, ACC's director general (administration).

Eleven teams from the ACC made the visits between 9:00am and 2:00pm.

Recently, the ACC received allegations through its hotline -- 106 -- that patients were being deprived of medical services due to the absence of doctors in government hospitals and health complexes.

Munir said such a situation in the health sector was saddening.

“If they do not have the spirit to serve people, they must leave the medical service,” he said, adding that they would take stern action for negligence of duty.

ACC sources said some doctors sign the attendance sheet once or twice a week to draw their salaries, but remain absent throughout the month.

The ACC will send reports today to the authorities concerned for taking action against the absentees, he said.

The 11 teams visited Sarkari Karmachari Hospital, Najira Bazar Mattri Sadan, Mugda General Hospital, Mymensingh's Muktgaccha Upazila Health Complex, Delduar Upazila Health Complex in Tangail, Pirgaccha Upazila Health Complex in Rangpur, Godagari Upazila Health Complex in Rajshahi, Dinajpur Sadar Hospital, Kumarkhali Upazila Health Complex in Kushtia, Pabna Sadar General Hosptial and Atgharia Upazila Health Complex.

The ACC matched the numbers of doctors present with the rosters of the hospitals and health complexes and found discrepancies almost everywhere.

Eleven out of 99 doctors on the roster were absent at Sarkari Karmachari Hospital and Najira Bazar Mattri Sadan.

Mugda General Hospital in the capital, however, had all doctors present during the ACC visit. But the anti-graft watchdog caught an emergency division staffer Abu Musa Bhuiyan taking bribes from a patient's relatives.

The hospital authorities later suspended him.

The scenario was even worse outside Dhaka.

In the 250-bed Pabna Medical College Hospital, a total of 35 out of 49 doctors, including its assistant director Dr Ranjan Kumar Dutta, were found not to have arrived around 9:00am, reports our Pabna correspondent.

The doctors were supposed to be present within 8:30am.

After going through the hospital's register, ACC Assistant Director Atikur Rahman said, “We came to know that 49 doctors are posted to the hospital. But we found only 14 present,” he said.

Ranjan and some of the absent doctors later came late while some were absent.

Asked, Ranjan said he was late yesterday due to some personal reasons.

He, however, admitted that irregular timing was a common practice. “But doctors do not remain absent,” he claimed.

Later, the team visited Atghoria Upazila Health Complex and found that most of the doctors were there on time.

In Rangpur, ACC officials visited Pirgaccha Upazila Health Complex at 9:50am. While 10 doctors are posted for services, the team found only two doctors present at the time.

“The two doctors were on deputation to Rangpur Sadar Hospital and the six others, including the chief of the health complex, were absent,” said Prabir Kumar Das, deputy assistant director of the ACC.

The Daily Star tried to reach Director General of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Mohammad Abul Kalam Azad for comments but his phone was found switched off.