Services disrupted for bureaucratic tangles

Trackback URL

Download PDF

The 100-bed Mahanagar Shishu Hospital has failed to provide fully-fledged service even 18 years into operation due to bureaucratic red tape and lack of successive governments’ political will.

Run by the Dhaka City Corporation (DCC), the hospital was launched in 1990 and has since then been providing only indoor service with a capacity for 50 patients at a time.

However, the hospital has no monetary problems, as it receives full allocation from the government.

“Currently, 50 patients on an average are receiving indoor services every day. Before 2006, the hospital could not admit more than 10 patients, as it didn’t serve food, and supply of medicine was also irregular,” says Director Nurul Islam.

The hospital began its activities as an outdoor hospital with little manpower and equipment on Gouro Sundar Roy Lane in Lalbagh. Later, the then mayor in 1999 inaugurated the hospital, which gradually began indoor services.

“Still the hospital can’t become fully operational because we don’t have the departments of pathology and radiology. If 70 patients turn up, we won’t be able to provide them with the available services,” says Nurul Islam.

Against the posts for 39 nurses, the hospital has only 16. Half of them are working on deputation and they might leave any time, he adds.

“The scope for promotion and transfer is so limited here that very few medical professionals are interested to come here. Currently, nine medical officers and five consultants are working at the hospital.”

More than 50 posts for health technologists, consultants, anaesthetists and medical officers have long been vacant.

The city corporation has approved posts for nurses and other medical professionals, but it doesn’t have any approved recruitment guidelines.

“The city corporation has recently prepared a draft recruitment guideline and is going to send it to the LGRD ministry for approval. Then it’ll be sent to the establishment ministry within a month,” says Secretary of the DCC Golam Mostofa.

“A draft guideline was prepared before, approval of which was deferred for being incomplete,” he adds.

Only one anaesthetist comes to assist the surgeon twice a week. Besides, absence of burn management system and road accident injury service forces patients seek treatment elsewhere.

“We cannot even think of admitting patients with major injuries as that would require three surgeons in three shifts. But I’m the only surgeon here who get the anaesthetist twice a week for conducting major operations,” Dr ASM Alamgir Chowdhury, consultant (paediatric surgery) tells The Daily Star.

The only ambulance with emergency patients finds it hard to enter the hospital through a narrow lane.

“Even truckers with medicines don’t want to come near the hospital on this road that is mostly grabbed by locals. We have to face tremendous problems to bring medicines by vans from where the trucks stop,” says an insider.

“We have applied to the city corporation to evict the road grabbers. But the file has been lying there for at least six months,” says Dr Nurul Islam.

During a visit to the hospital, a long queue of outdoor patients was seen waiting in the hospital yard.

“We take medicines from here free of cost. Normally they supply oral saline and paracytamol group tablets,” said Maryam who came with her daughter from Islambagh.

The hospital director reiterates that they provide the patients with 90 percent medicines free of cost as per rules. But guardians say they often have to buy medicines from outside.

“My son was admitted yesterday evening and it’s now 12:30pm. The hospital supplied only cholera saline and I had to buy medicines and injections,” said a mother who brought his son suffering from severe diarrhoea.

However, the number of patients receiving treatment is increasing against all odds. Last year about 50,000 patients received treatment here, while the number was 41,000 and 27,000 in 2006 and 2005 respectively.

“If we can develop our service with adequate medical equipment and manpower, the hospital will play an important role to ensure health service to the children of the city,” the director hopes.

Leave a Reply