20-Bed Hospital in Sunamganj: Left empty for 6 years
Six years has passed since the government built the hospital, but it is yet to serve any patient as the authorities have still not sanctioned the necessary workforce to get the facility up and running.
The 20-bed hospital in the remote Jagdal union in Sunamganj's Derai upazila has been gathering dust, developing rust, and increasingly becoming a safe haven for drug addicts.
During a recent visit to the hospital, this correspondent found cracks on the walls, displaced floor tiles, broken doors and windows with rusty iron grilles, and rickety chairs and tables.
There was garbage dumped around the hospital building and the premises have turned into a place for cattle to graze. Some locals said that in absence of a caretaker, the hospital has become a centre for drug users, smugglers, and gamblers.
The hospital, comprising a two-storey main building and four one-storey structures for accommodation and other logistic purposes, was built on four acres at a cost of Tk 4 crore in 2013.
It was built to support more than 50,000 people of three unions in the wetlands with poor road connectivity, according to Jagdal Union Parishad Chairman Shibly Ahmed.
"Surrounded by water bodies, this upazila is deprived of access to education, communication and healthcare," he said.
The 32-bed Derai Upazila Health Complex, the nearest healthcare facility, is difficult to access due to poor connectivity. Thus, the poor from remote villages in Jagdal, Kulanja, and Karimpur unions are unable to take patients to there, he added.
Mizanur Rahman, a retired assistant secretary who also served as district commissioner of Cumilla, said he initiated the move to build the hospital in Jagdal so that the poor could get easy access to healthcare.
The government approved the project in 2006 and it was funded by the World Bank. He, along with other locals, donated the land for the facility, he added.
Mizanur said his own parents, who lived in Jagdal, died due to lack of treatment.
"But six years after its inauguration, locals are yet to receive any medical treatment from the hospital, which is now in shambles," he lamented.
Suhash Sutradhar, an NGO worker and resident of Jagdal village, said, "Derai Hospital is seven kilometres away from our village and even during the dry season, the only transport available are motorcycles and battery-run auto-rickshaws, which are risky for patients. In the rainy season, we have to use boats, which are time-consuming and also risky."
Josna Begum, another villager, said her 12-year-old nephew died a few months ago on the way to the Derai Upazila Health Complex.
"He was suffering from diarrhoea. Had the Jagdal hospital been functional, we could have saved him," she said.
A patient at the health complex, 55-year-old Ozufa Begum, from Karimpur village, said it took her more than two hours and a hellish journey to get there.
"I reached the hospital around 11:00am. I've been waiting for around two hours now and I'm not sure how long it will take to get to a doctor and when I will be able to return home," said Ozufa, in the first week of February.
The Jagdal hospital, much nearer her home, could have saved her a lot of time, money, and a torturous journey back and forth.
Mohammad Mahbubur Rahman, health and family planning officer of Derai upazila, told this correspondent that medical services could not begin in the Jagdal hospital due to a lack of manpower.
"We wrote to the higher authorities more than 15 times asking for manpower, but we are yet to get a positive response," he said.
A total of 26 posts, including doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and medical technologists, are needed to run the hospital.
Contacted, Jaya Sengupta, lawmaker of Derai-Sulla constituency, claimed the manpower allotment for the hospital was delayed due to bureaucratic complexities.
"The hospital has to be repaired before making it operational," she added.
Sunamganj Civil Surgeon Mohammad Shams Uddin said he joined the office in February and was unaware why appointments of the hospital workforce was pending.
"I visited the hospital on February 15 and I'm trying to open at least the outdoor unit of the hospital soon," he said.
He also said the local health department in general was facing a severe manpower crisis at the moment.
"No new appointments in the second, third, and fourth class sections in the health department has been made in the last nine years," he claimed.
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