CMCH burn unit limps on
One-and-a-half-year-old Faria was kept side by side with adult patients at the burn and plastic surgery unit of Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH).
“The space [inside the burn unit] is so congested that infection can spread from one to another easily,” said her mother Raju Akhter expressing concern over her daughter's getting further infection.
Faria had suffered burns while playing in the kitchen on April 12 as hot tea fell over her. Her mother along with other family members came all the way from Feni to Chittagong for her treatment.
Established in 2012, the CMCH burn unit is the lone facility of its kind in Chittagong region, where patients from Chittagong, Cox's Bazar, Rangamati, Khagrachhari, Bandarban, Feni, Noakhali and Lakkhipur districts come to seek treatment.
The 26-bed unit has to accommodate on average 60 patients a day forcing many to stay on the floor, which, according to experts, is a breach of the guidelines to be followed for treating burn victims. Besides, there are shortages of manpower and logistical support.
Against this backdrop, the standards of care burn patients should get are compromised.
Rahima Begum, mother of five-year-old Shakib, was complaining that there was no separate room for changing the dressing of babies and children. She brought her son to CMCH on April 12 from Rangamati after the boy sustained burn injuries to his legs and chest from a candle.
Azad Hossain, a 13-year-old boy whose fingers of both hands conjoined after suffering burns, came to the hospital from Satkania upazila of Chittagong on March 31.
He needed immediate plastic surgery but doctors could not give him a date to operate on him before the first week of May as there is only one operating theatre in the unit.
The facility also does not have an intensive care unit (ICU), an integral part for burn treatment, and a specialised bathtub for washing burn patients, said Mrinal Kanti Das, head of the unit.
Many patients are referred to Dhaka Medical College Hospital only for ICU support. Some critically injured patients die on the way of at least six-hour journey from Chittagong to the capital, Mrinal said.
“Improvisation in treatment can cause bad impacts on [burn] patients but we are compelled to do so amid severe shortages of manpower and logistics.”
The unit does not even have any medical officer.
Since the burn unit is supposed to give emergency services 24 hours, doctors should be there round the clock, and so it requires at least 10 medical officers.
Surprisingly, there is no such post created for the unit, Mrinal said.
The post of professor has remained vacant for many years, he said, adding that the unit had an associate professor, two assistant professors, two registrars and two assistant registrars.
Brig Gen Jalal Uddin, director of CMCH, said the government had taken steps to build an independent hospital for burn patients under CMCH, with facilities like ICU and vital logistics and manpower. The Chinese government agreed to provide the fund.
A technical committee from China has recently visited CMCH and chosen a site for the purpose. The team members are engaged in technical works now.
“I have information so far that the construction of the hospital will begin in a few months.” It will take nearly three years to complete the construction job, said the director of the hospital.
In the meantime, the authority will try to manage manpower and logistics to support the burn unit, he added.
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