Dr Sangjukta Saha started as a doctor by registering with the Bangladesh Medical and Dental Council but her status was not updated over the last 13 years.
The Central Hospital gynaecologist acknowledged her mistake and said she could not manage time to renew the registration due to professional commitments at a media briefing at her Dhaka residence on Saturday.
“I will have to pay the registration fee to renew my BMDC certificate. An online payment service has been launched but I was not aware of this. I should have registered earlier.”
Sangjukta said her professional commitments keep her so busy that sometimes she even can not manage to return home after work.
Ankhi, a 25-year-old Eden College student from Cumilla, passed away at the capital’s LabAid Hospital on Jun 18. She went to Central Hospital with hopes of undergoing a normal delivery after watching videos posted on social media by Dr Sangjukta.
Ankhi was reportedly admitted to Central Hospital for treatment under Dr Sangjukta’s supervision, but the doctor said she was abroad at the time. Denying responsibility for the patient’s death, she claimed that she had not been informed about Ankhi’s admission and raised allegations of irregularities against the hospital authorities.
Central Hospital sent a legal notice to Sangjukta on Thursday, demanding that the gynaecologist retract her statement blaming the hospital for the ‘botched delivery’ that led to the deaths of Ankhi and her newborn child.
The hospital authorities threatened to file a defamation suit against her under the Digital Security Act as they pinned responsibility for the tragedy on her.
Sangjukta said her lawyer will brief the media afterwards about her opinion regarding the withdrawal of her statement against the hospital.
In response to a question about her social media campaign, the gynaecologist said she will stop making Facebook Live streams if doing so is illegal in Bangladesh. She said she was not informed earlier of any such law.
“If the government thinks it’s causing harm and doing such a campaign is a crime, then I will have to rethink my stance. Nobody notified me about the concern earlier. As I know this now, I will not continue the campaign any more.”
