Patients were passing days unattended in hospitals in the capital as most of the physicians and nurses were on leave on the occasion of Eid.
Patients both in public and private hospitals all over the country were referred to Dhaka Medical College Hospital because of shortage of physicians.The DMCH emergency unit officials said they had received 397 emergency patients and 43 police case patients till 2:00pm on Sunday.
They said many patients were coming to the hospital being referred by other hospitals both in Dhaka and outside.
Casualty department was full of patients with a large number of them lying on the floor as many people injured in traffic accidents were referred to the DMCH from across the country.
Mithu came to the hospital from the city’s Uttara on the night of the Eid day after sustaining grievous
injuries in a road accident. His mother said a microbus had hit him while he was crossing the road.
Haroon, another patient, came from Bikrampur on the day before Eid (Thursday) with injuries he had sustained in a motorbike accident.
The patients alleged that no doctor had visited them on the Eid day and the day after.
The less critical patients were discharged from the hospital before the Eid, said doctors.
National Institute of Cardio-Vascular Diseases officials said they had received 36 emergency patients from 8:00pm to 1:30pm on Sunday while 41 patients were admitted through the outpatient department and emergency unit.
However, the hospital OPD was closed at around 12:00pm as a few patients came to the OPD.
Runa, 27, a patient from Kushtia was admitted to the vascular surgery unit nine days before the Eid. She said the doctor had asked her to stay in the hospital as her surgery would be conducted soon after the Eid.
‘No doctor came in last three days,’ Runa said on Sunday. ‘I do not know when the operation will be done.’
Angiograms, scheduled operations and permanent pacemaker setting will remain suspended for three days at the National Institute of Cardio-Vascular Diseases, officials said.
They said that as it was in the past year, only emergency vascular surgery and temporary pacemaker setting would continue during Eid holidays.
The blood bank, pathology and X-ray department will remain open round the clock, they added.
A total of 10 physicians were on duty at the cardiac medicine indoor unit and six at the cardiac surgery indoor unit during the holidays.
BM Abdul Hannan, director hospital of the director general of health services, however, said they had instructed the hospitals for taking special measures for the Eid vacation.
He said the outpatient department had been closed for only two days while the emergency units at the hospitals were open round the clock.
They also instructed the hospital authorities to handle rush of patients at the emergency of the public hospitals with specials arrangements.
-With New Age input
