Photo : Collected
Patients have been suffering for over five years from a problem related to renovation in the wards and lift installation since 2017 in the country’s third-largest government hospital in Dhaka– Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College and Hospital.
The hospital has only two lifts to cater to its 1,350 patients and doctors. Most important departments like cardiology, surgery, gynaecology, obstetrics, etc. are located on the 5th floor, the top floor of the building. Patients have to wait in queue to reach those floors for a long time.
Dr Md Khalilur Rahman, Director of the Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital (SSMCH)said, “The Public Works Department (PWD) provided only one lift this year, and the other seven are yet to be received as LC has not been opened during this time.”
The renovation work, which has been continuing since 2017, is yet to be finished. Patients have been suffering from lack of beds as works have been ongoing for long. The Public Works Department is working based on their schedule. The works of two blocks, out of six, are yet to be finished.
Patients not only suffer due to the ongoing refurbishment works but also for doctor and nurse crisis. Patients need to wait maintaining a long queue during rush hour to get special treatment in the surgery department and others.
“The 1,350-bed hospital has only 200 doctors and 300 medical students. Despite our limited manpower, we always give quality treatment but patients have to wait at least seven days for surgery,” said a professor of department of surgery.
The hospital has a 20-bed ICU and 10 beds in the cardiology department and a high-dependency unit (HDU). A 10-bed NICU will be set up soon. But the hospital has no pediatric intensive care unit (ICU), said the hospital director.
END/TDM/ARS
