Faridpur hospital struggles with diarrhoea patients

Diarrhoea has broken out alarmingly in Faridpur and the adjoining districts during the last seven days and new patients are getting admitted to Faridpur General Hospital every day.

“Sixty-six diarrhoea patients have been admitted to this hospital in 24 hours and the number of patients is increasing every hour. More than 300 diarrhoea patients took treatment at the hospital last week," said senior staff nurse Golapi Begum.

Patients from Rajbari, Magura, Madaripur and Shariatpur are also coming here for treatment, she added.

On a visit to the hospital on Saturday, this correspondent found that the number of patients is more than the number of beds and patients have to sleep in the corridors and other wards.

Md Tofazzal, husband of a diarrhoea patient Shahinoor Begum of Moulvirchar area in Charbhadrasan upazila, said he admitted his wife on Friday. She was given only saline in the last 14 hours and the doctors did not examine her properly, he added.

Azad Mollah, 28, of Sonapur village in Saltha upazila said he was admitted to the hospital with diarrhoea on Monday and got released on Friday. But he was again attacked by diarrhoea at night, so he came back to the hospital.

“They have been affected by diarrhoea as they take fried and oily foods after fasting whole day. We are trying our best to treat them. Although our hospital was upgraded into a 100-bed one, there are only 18 beds for diarrhoea patients,” said Resident Medical Officer Ganesh Kumar Agarwal.