BANGLADESH NEWS
Health services at Adhunik Sadar Hospital in the town remain in a deplorable condition due to the shortage of doctors, staffs and accommodation facilities.
There are only 18 doctors against 35 posts at the 'full-fledged' hospital meant for 16 lakh people of the district.
Other important posts, including those of 14 specialist doctors and a medical officer of homeopathy are also lying vacant for long.
At present there is no senior consultant at cardiology, children, anesthesia, medicine departments and no junior consultants at several departments including child and plastic surgery, said sources at civil surgeon office here.
Besides, the posts of hospital superintendent, service superintendent, administrative officer, statistics officer, accountant, storekeeper and other 43 are also vacant.
Only four medical officers treat outdoor patients while three emergency medical officers are working at the emergency department.
The hospital was upgraded to a 100-bed one from 50-bed capacity in September 2006 without arranging adequate manpower,
The Prime Minister announced at a public meeting on Chapainawabganj Government College premises on April 23, 2011 that the hospital would be upgraded to a 250-bed one in the near future but the promise is yet to be fulfilled.
The existing manpower also do not perform their duties properly. Patients crowd in front of the doctors' chamber while doctors idle away their time on different excuses, patients alleged.
The consultants do not stay at their quarters in the hospital compound. Emergency patients who come to the hospital in the afternoon or at night are often deprived of their services, hospital sources said.
During a visit to Chapainawabganj Adhunik Sadar Hospital recently, this correspondent saw scores of patients lying on the floor of different wards, passages and corridors.
A patient from Masjidpara in the town said that medical representatives often visit doctors at duty hours.
“I came here at 9:00am and failed to visit any doctor till 2:00pm”, he said adding, many patients like him return home after waiting for long.
Many others patients and their attendants made similar allegations.
A medical officer of the hospital said “We have to serve some 400 to 500 outdoor patients daily. Sometimes patients and their attendants become frustrated, as we cannot give proper attention to them”.
Indoor treatment is also badly hampered due to lack of doctors. On an average, 300 to 400 patients stay at different wards daily although there are only 100 beds at the hospital.
An elderly patient of Kalitala village under Nachole upazila said that she had been staying on the floor since her admission several days ago.
Another from Kamlakantapur village of Shibgonj upazila told the same tale.
There is a big generator at the hospital to supply electricity during power outages. However it is never used for lack of budget,
Dr Asit Sarkar, residential medical officer (RMO) at the hospital, said they could not run the generator because of manpower shortage.
We are trying to give better treatment to the patients, he asserted.
Contacted, Civil Surgeon Md Abu Yusuf said they sent several letters to the higher authorities concerned asking for steps to fill up the vacant posts but to no effect yet.
He also said that the hospital was providing its best services with the hinted resources.
No comments:
Post a Comment