Twenty of the 43 doctors' posts at the Ishwarganj Upazila Health Complex in Mymensingh are vacant, and with no gynaecologist, operations for pregnant women have been suspended since July, Prothom Alo reports. The 50-bed hospital has 70 to 85 inpatients on any given day.
About 24 km from Mymensingh town, it also serves people from Gouripur and part of Kendua in Netrokona. Hospital records show 10,911 outpatients in October, 12,261 in September and 12,275 in August. On 1 November alone 621 came.
The posts of resident medical officer and of junior consultants in cardiology, paediatrics, gynaecology, anaesthesia, dermatology and venereology and ophthalmology are empty, as are seven medical officer posts. Two of the medical officers on the roll are deputed to hospitals in Dhaka, and the upazila health and family planning officer sees patients on top of his administrative work.
Asmita Rani of Charhossainpur, who brought her young son in, said a paediatrician would let patients from far away get proper treatment there. Abdul Salam of Tarafpachhail in Mogtula union said he got no medicine from the hospital and had to buy about Tk 1,800 worth himself.
Upazila health and family planning officer Md Zakir Hossain said medicines are allocated on last year's patient numbers, while patients have since risen one and a half to two times. About 75 percent of the allocation must come from Essential Drugs Company Ltd (EDCL), and even paracetamol does not arrive in sufficient quantity. Outpatients used to number 350 to 450 a day; on some days now 600 to 750 come.
He said patients are missing care because there are no specialists in gynaecology, paediatrics and cardiology, and a small number of doctors has to run the emergency, outpatient and inpatient services.
Photo: Mohammad Masum / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Source: Prothom Alo
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