A big portion of people from the southern part of the city depends on this hospital with 1000 beds. People from Keraniganj and from the other side of Buriganga also come here for treatment.

The Emergency section has only four rooms with dirty, cratered floors and no doors or windows. The rooms contain six shabby observation beds. Waste is carelessly tossed into a metallic bucket. The only ventilation system is some holes in the upper part of the brick wall in two rooms.

Electric fans are suspended from the ceiling with big iron rods. The ceiling itself looks makeshift.

"We have to pour water in the potholes in the corridor of Emergency 10 to 12 times a day to stop dust forming," said Khalilur Rahman, a peon of the Emergency, while pouring water in the holes from a plastic can.

MA Majid, nurse-in-charge of Emergency, said, "As you can see we have no environment to treat patients here. The area is covered in dust from the potholes in the corridor.

"Today [Saturday July 28] the area is relatively clean, as the adviser has come to visit to the hospital," he said while monitoring the water pouring activity in the corridor.

One side of two rooms is partitioned with cardboards, on the other side of which a leader of the fourth class employees lives with his family. Sometimes when the family cooks the smell wafts into the Emergency through the holes of the cardboard, said doctors and nurses working there.

The ticket counter is on the other side of the hospital.

"The structure is so rickety that if there is a storm outside we feel like the storm is going on inside," Majid said.

"There is no way to sterilise equipments before use here because we do not have any gas supply. We have to use spirit and soap and water instead of sterilising. But often we do not have water supply also," he added.

"We have no security here. If we keep equipment on the table of the nurses' duty room and go to another room for a while, some of the equipment will be missing when we return," he said.

Md Khorshed Alam Chowdhury, a nurse, said, "We do not have any equipment to do stomach wash here. So when we have a patient who took poison we will have to take him to another section of the hospital."

The female section of Emergency is without any doors or windows and contains three beds. Female patients hardly stay there, as there is no door and no security, he said.

The only bathroom of the Emergency always remains under lock and key, as there is no water supply there. The supply of electricity is also irregular.

There are six emergency medical officers (EMO) for the Emergency. Three doctors work in three shifts a day by rotation.

Dr Alauddin, an EMO, said, "It will be easier to answer if you ask what is not a problem in Emergency while working because it is always full of problems."

"The Emergency was shifted to this place last December. Before that this place was a godown. The previous Emergency was a better place with tiles and required equipments," said an EMO requesting anonymity, who has been working there for the last three years.

Dr Subodh Chandra Das, deputy director in-charge, Mitford Hospital, admitted the existing problems and said that the Emergency was shifted to that place according to the orders of DG [director general] Health Dr Shahjahan Biswas, on the reasoning that the Emergency should be at the front side of the hospital.

"If 50 people are rushed to the Emergency due to an accident we cannot accommodate them here and have to send them to Dhaka Medical College. We do not have casualty service either," he said.

"Our present director [of Mitford Dr Mahmuda Khatun] has talked with the DG Health about the renovation of the Emergency. Fan, trolley and other equipment have been given," he said.

"On Thursday we got a design from PWD [Public Works Department]. New rooms for doctors and tiled walls are included in the design," he added.