Cutting corners dangerously

Dr Sirajul Islam Medical College Hospital has been caught mixing blood samples from three patients just to skimp on petri dish.

This was discovered during a five-hour mobile court raid at the hospital in the capital yesterday.

"For every test, they put three blood samples in a single petri dish. This meant that one or more of the patients received incorrect test results. How would one understand who has what?" said Rab Executive Magistrate Sarwoer Alam, who led the drive.

"Not even tiny diagnostic centres in places like Jatrabari do unethical practices like this," he added.

Dr Sirajul Islam Medical College Hospital is a 16-storey, 500-bed hospital with a Covid-19 isolation unit opposite to Mouchak market. It was fined Tk 30 lakh.

Officials also found expired reagents in the operation theatre, intensive care unit (ICU), and even at the isolation unit ICU.

"We found surgical accessories in the OT that expired years ago," he said.

The team also stated that the hospital's isolation unit was not maintaining complete isolation, thereby risking infecting patients who do not have the coronavirus.

"We have instructed them to improve the practices at the isolation unit, or shut it down if they cannot function," he said.

The hospital's licence was renewed last year, informed the team.

Asked why the licence was renewed when the hospital has been engaging in such malpractice, Alam replied, "We found the violations today after a five-hour raid done by an entire team. The authorities cannot always comb for such anomalies when they send an inspector to visit the hospital prior to issuing a renewed licence."

On August 5, a health ministry circular asked the home ministry to keep law enforcement agencies from raiding government and private hospitals without permission from the director general of the Directorate General of Health Services.

The circular came after Executive Magistrate Alam raided the infamous Regent Hospital. Yesterday, the High Court questioned why this directive of the Health Ministry should not be declared illegal.

"Magistrates are independent. They do not need permission from anyone," health ministry's Joint Secretary Umme Salma Tanzia, who participated in the raid, told reporters.

About the private health care facilities which have yet to get their licences renewed, Tanzia said that a committee is looking into the matter.