Dengue patients at Mugda Medical College Hospital in Dhaka are being treated on floors, at the foot of stairs and beside the lifts for want of beds. The women's ward on the 12th floor had 74 patients and the men's ward on the 11th floor 75, a total of 149. Patients and relatives say they are satisfied with the doctors and nurses; their main complaint is the wait for tests.
Fourteen-year-old Jamil has had a fever of up to 102 degrees for three days, with aching limbs, diarrhoea and vomiting. With no bed free, he lies on a mattress beside the lift on the 9th floor on a saline drip. His mother Nahida said he was admitted and treated at once, and that private hospitals cost too much, so they are staying even on the floor.
Relatives say that even after queueing from 8am they get a serial number only at 9.30 or 10, and wait in another queue for about an hour to collect reports. Riton from Meradia, there for six days with his brother, said treatment is good but tests take an hour and a half in line and reports another hour. Each lift trip also means a 10 to 15 minute wait; three of the four lifts are for patients, and the pressure eases after 7pm.
Costs vary from family to family, from Tk 500-700 a day to Tk 1,500-2,000. The hospital supplies some medicines and saline; the rest must be bought. Masnur, a student at Khilgaon Government School, saw his platelets fall to 29,000 over five days before a private hospital sent him to a government one; since reaching Mugda they have risen to 43,000, said his mother Rokeya.
Sujata Mallick, a nurse on the women's ward, said that in 2023 the ward held 300 to 350 patients, while this year it holds about 80 a day. Suchi, a nurse on the men's ward, said patient numbers had fallen from 86 two days earlier to 74-75.
Nationally, the Directorate General of Health Services reported six deaths and 2,088 admissions in the 24 hours to Sunday. In the first 18 days of October there were 32,780 admissions and 102 deaths; this year so far, 112,400 admissions and 348 deaths.
Reporting: Arif Saon, Desh Rupantor
Photo: US Department of Agriculture / Wikimedia Commons (public domain)
Source: Desh Rupantor
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