Proposal for turning the hospitals into a medical college shelved for 7yrs after approval
The proposal for tuning three Dhaka South City Corporation hospitals into a medical college and hospital, with the aim of improving quality of service, is still stuck with the ministry seven years after the local government ministry gave the approval.
The understaffed three DSCC hospitals are failing to provide heath services to the urban people despite having adequate budgetary allocation.
The three hospitals are 50-bed Dhaka Mahanagar General Hospital at Noya Bazar, 31-bed Nazirabazar Maternity Clinic and 100-bed Dhaka Mohanagar Shishu Hospital at Lalbagh.
The local government ministry approved the medical college and hospital in October, 2006, said DSCC officials.
Chief health officer of the city corporation M Abdullah-Al-Harun has told New Age that they applied for the approval of the medical college, which was now waiting for the health ministry approval.
‘We have already completed the construction of the medical college on the 2nd floor of the Dhaka Mahanagar General Hospital. But the equipment for the hospitals are yet be purchased,’ he said.
Initially, the DCC had planed for converting the 50-bed Dhaka Mahanagar General Hospital to a 250 bed hospital and applied for medical college.
But now the proposal was for a 281-bed medical college and hospital by combining the three hospitals.
According to the rule for applying for a private medical college, the hospital should have 250 beds.
The then DCC had primarily selected a place of around 100 bigha at the city’s Dhalpur to set up the medical college and hospital, the officials said, adding that but there was no progress in reclaiming the land from grabbers.
Harun said, ‘After getting the approval from the health directorate, we can start the medical college.’
However, ABM Abdul Hannan, director of medical education of health directorate and also chief of the private medical college approval committee, said they were yet to get any request from the ministry to visit the hospitals.
‘I personally have heard of the proposal, but did not know that the hospitals were in three different places,’ he said.
‘However, if we are satisfied with their establishment, we will approve the proposal,’ Hannan said.
During spot visit, the hospitals were found to have unclean beds, dirty rooms, damaged furniture in the wards and dampened walls, projecting the unhygienic atmosphere of the hospitals.
Dhaka Mohanagar Shishu Hospital has all of its words closed, except the medicine wards, for shortage of doctors and staff, the hospital director and consultant, M Khalequzzaman Akhter, told New Age.
The hospital runs a 60-bed medicine wards under which they run general medicine, diarrhoea and dengue wards, while the 40-bed of surgery wards were closed for lack of surgery doctors.
The hospital stopped its surgery, anaesthesia, isolation, neonatal, breastfeeding and paying wards for shortage of doctors and nurses. ‘We have serious nurse crisis. Even nine out of 22 posts for doctors are now vacant,’ he said.
No surgery is conducted in the hospital as the hospital has no surgeon and anaesthetist except assistant at the anaesthesia department, officials said.
Lack of anaesthetists at the 31-bed Nazirabazar Maternity Clinic has led to the closure of caesarean section delivery at the hospital, with no c-section delivery in last five years, said its staff.
However, DSCC chief health officer said he was satisfied as they could serve the poor people. ‘We serve many poor people.’
The service quality of the Mahanagar General Hospital is good enough, he claimed.
He also claimed that c-sections were conducted at the DCC maternity clinic regularly by hiring anaesthetists from outside. ‘But it is true that no emergency caesarean delivery is conducted at the hospital,’ he said.
About the Dhaka Mohanagar Shishu Hospital, Harun said child surgery was a technical service. ‘But we can meet the patients’ need as most of the children suffer from diseases which the ‘medicine department’ can treat.’
The officials said they had written to the ministry for doctors, nurses, anaesthetists and other staff for the surgery department which is yet to be approved.
-With New Age input
