Double blow for child patients
In the soaring summer heat, child patients in Pirojpur General Hospital are undergoing immense sufferings due to malfunctioning ceiling fans in the child ward and a total halt of water supply.
Parents have already complained of the problems to the authorities, but to no avail.
Khadiza Begum, who had her one-year-old daughter admitted for physical disability on Monday, said she had not found water in the ward since that very day.
Parents said they collected water from other wards for daily use.
"In the bathrooms, we don't get water for bathing and other use," said Lucky Begum, whose eight-year-old daughter was admitted three days ago with cold and fever.
With the temperature hitting 35 degrees Celsius in the district yesterday, the sufferings of patients multiplied because out of the eight fans that should have been there, one is missing, two are not functioning, and a fourth one moves too slowly.
In a visit yesterday, this correspondent saw Salma Begum trying to protect her nine-month-old daughter from the punishing heat with a hand fan. But, she said, it was not working.
Wishing anonymity, a duty nurse told The Daily Star that the fans had not been functioning for the last one week.
Dr Fakrul Alam, the district's civil surgeon and superintendent of the hospital, said the fans went out of order due to fluctuations of voltage. "We will fix them soon," he said.
He avoided a direct answer when asked about the total halt of water supply, saying parents and relatives of the patients often kept the taps open, causing waste of water.
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