Dedicated hospitals for treating Covid-19 patients in Dhaka are still being readied, despite the elapsing of over two months, according to hospital authorities and information of the health services directorate.
Most of the enlisted hospitals cannot diagnose Covid-19 due to acute shortage of physicians, nurses, medical technologists, ward boys, cleaners and equipment needed for the handling of patients under life threat.
One of the 10 government Covid-19 hospitals has not been able to take in a single patient while the others have admitted patients far less than their capacities.
Hospitals that were selected for treating coronavirus patients have already gone beyond their capacities in providing further patient care as infection rates are swelling across the country.
The poor state of government-designated Covid-19 hospitals often gets reflected in photos published in newspapers.
Still, the government Covid-19 hospitals are largely vacant though daily infection numbers keep increasing with the total number of 15,691 confirmed cases in Bangladesh on Monday.
According to the World Health Organisation, 20 per cent of the coronavirus infected people might need hospitalisation.
According to Kurmitola General Hospital control room information, they have a 250-bed capacity, which is already close to being filled up. Every day new patients are being referred to the hospital with only a few leaving after recovery.
At the same time, their inability to provide proper treatment and sample testing may result in the further spread of the pandemic.
Patients, who have recovered from corona treatment hospitals, have also vented their limitless sufferings while getting treatment at these facilities. They said that they were unable to get sufficient help from doctors, nurses, and other staffers.
Senior reporter of Jamuna Television Sahadat Hossain and videographer of Independent Television Ashiqur Rahman, have shared their experiences while getting treatment at Covid-19 hospitals.
They said that they hardly found doctors in times of need. Even staffers provided them medicines and food items irregularly.
Even due to lack of adequate manpower at IEDCR, results of samples tested cannot be provided by the state-owned agencies as per scheduled time.
However, the health authorities are now testing around 4,000 samples per day, which will gradually reach 10,000, said DGHS Additional Director General, Nasima Sultana in an online briefing.
IEDCR director Meerjady Sabrina Flora told Bangladesh Post that there was pressure of too many people seeking help at the same time. However, authorities are now increasing manpower to cope with the situation.
The health directorate has completed the recruitment of the new doctors and posted them in the hospitals dedicated for Covid-19 patients.
During this time of worldwide crisis, private hospitals and clinics are allegedly refusing to do their part to treat coronavirus patients. Earlier, the government called on the private health sector to help deal with the coronavirus crisis.
The government declared Mirpur Lalkuthi General Hospital a Covid-19 hospital 61 days ago and the authorities at the hospital said that they were ready to treat 200 patients with only 40 doctors and 39 nurses.
The hospital does not have an ICU for treating critical patients though the global trend reveals that 30 per cent of hospitalised COVID-19 patients need ICU support.
At present, there are 45 patients at the hospital.
Hospital director, Shamsul Karim said that they rely on other government facilities for tests of the patients, while for food, on Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital.
The health services director Aminul Islam, who is responsible for hospital management, told Bangladesh Post that he could not readily give a complete picture and asked that he be contacted later.
But he has not answered calls since that time.
A total of 2,000 more doctors of 39th (special) Bangladesh Civil Service (BCS) examination under the Public Service Commission (PSC) have been recruited and given postings to tackle the coronavirus situation, said a government order.
The doctors are set to take up their new posts as ‘assistant surgeon’ on May 12.
Those doctors were recruited from the list of 8,107 applicants who were overlooked despite passing the written and oral tests in the 39th special BCS exams due to a shortage of posts in the public health sector.