Patients at Mitford Hospital face bed shortage; emergency ward doesn’t have necessary equipment; ICU inoperative
Patients suffer badly for lack of care and facilities at the state-run Mitford Hospital in the capital.
At the postnatal ward of nearly two-century-old hospital, newborns are left lying on mattresses on the floor. Cats move around, cleaners gather waste close to the infants and attendants wearing shoes walk past.
And at the surgery department, many patients are accommodated on the corridor.
A post-operative patient, Mohammad Dulal Hossain, 54, who was moved to a bed on the corridor immediately after his surgery, said “It’s very cold here and I’ve caught fever, as an additional gift.”
Authorities said the 700-bed hospital has to accommodate more than double the capacity. They also said the hospital has inadequate resources and manpower.
“The pressure of patients is very severe,” said Shamsun Nahar Begum, head of Gynaecology department.
“We cannot refuse any mother going into labour. To make room for would-be mothers, we release those who delivered babies by caesarean section three days back. We are supposed to discharge them after seven days,” she added.
The premature discharge often causes infections in the patients’ surgical wounds.
Maya, 35, was readmitted with wound infection on January 5. She gave birth to a baby by caesarean section 12 days back.
“My suffering and expenditure increased manifold due to the readmission,” she said.
The emergency department has almost no equipment to stabilise patients’ condition. Rather an emergency patient is addressed after being sent to the concerned department that takes at least half-an-hour.
A trashcan is found right on the way to the ward from the main building. Used gloves and gauges smeared with blood and pus make the place stinky. Some vagrants are found sorting out blood bags and pipes and syringes to sell at Noya Bazar at Tk 35 per kilogramme.
Contacted, Deputy Director Abul Hashem Khan said the dustbin would be removed in a month.
The 10-bed Intensive Care Unit (ICU) is yet to be functional. The deputy director said they were waiting for the health ministry’s nod.
“Though we receive cancer patients and provide them with chemotherapy, due to lack of proper equipment we cannot arrange radiotherapy.
“For radiotherapy we have to refer patients to Dhaka Medical College and Hospital. We hope to establish a fully-fledged cancer ward by a year in a new building,” said the deputy director.
Abul Hashem said “A 50-bed cardiac surgery department has been established recently and will start working soon. We have a plan to set up a 20-bed burn unit by June this year.”
