The government hospitals in the city are ill-equipped to handle emergency cases as they lack the required equipment and manpower.
All the hospitals often refer the critical patients to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital which makes the condition of the critical patients worse due to the journey and delay, said the physicians.
At Suhrawardy Hospital and Medical College the emergency surgery patients do not get the emergency surgery facilities due to lack of anaesthetists, surgeons and emergency operation theatre, said the doctors of the hospital.
‘We have to refer the critical patients, who need emergency surgery, to the other hospitals,’ said Mamun, the on-duty medical officer.
The hospital has no Intensive Care Unit. The patients who need ICU support are referred to other hospitals, he said.
Hospital sources said that the emergency cardiac patients, seriously injured patients and orthopaedic patients are generally referred to the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases, Dhaka Medical College Hospital, National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopaedic Rehabilitation for treatment.
The emergency operation theatre is only used for the gynaecology patients. Other surgery patients have to wait, Mamun said.
‘As there is no flooring system [patients sleeping on the floor] at the hospital we cannot admit more patients. So in many cases we have nothing to do but refer them to other hospitals,’ he said.
NICVD sources said the hospital receives emergency cardiac medicine and cardiac vascular patients, but the patients who need surgery have to wait to be scheduled for operation.
‘Usually we receive many patients from remote areas. We also receive critical patients who are referred to us by different city hospitals including the government ones,’ said Brigadier General Shahidul Haque Mallik of the Dhaka Medical College Hospital. ‘Due to delay the condition of the referred patients deteriorates in many cases.’
At DMCH they can handle only 50 emergency patients at a time, he said.
He said the full-fledged emergency services should be established in every government hospital so that the pressure on DMCH is eased.
Burn patients are directly referred to the DMCH burn unit, said Mallik, and the unit faces problems in treating them because of its limited facilities and manpower.
