Covid-19 in Pabna: Cases rising amid poor care

A government employee suffering from covid-19 was recently admitted to Pabna Medical College Hospital, which has a 100-bed Covid unit, but he was hurriedly shifted to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital because of acute respiratory problem.

"Getting proper oxygen support, I am now feeling better. But in Pabna, I was worried because of insufficient oxygen supply," he told this correspondent.

On June, 20, Secretary of Ataikula Union Parishad Md Hafizur Rahman, a government employee, was admitted to the PMCH with Covid-19 symptom. He was later shifted to the RMCH where he died because of not getting ICU support timely, his relatives said.

Ismail Hossain, 60, president of Pabna's Ataikula union Awami League, died with respiratory problem at the PMCH on June 24. His family alleged that Ismail, a patient with liver infection, did not get treatment at the hospital for two to three hours as he was not admitted to Covid unit.

"My father was taken to the hospital at about 12:30am but he was given oxygen support around 2:30am. After a few minutes, he died," said Ariful Islam, son of Ismail.

Ariful claimed his father was not a Covid patient.

Contacted, Dr Saleh Mohammed, head of Covid unit at the hospital, said when a patient with coronavirus symptoms comes, "we take him/her to yellow or red unit of the hospital. Due to negligence of the patient's relatives to bring the patient to proper unit, treatment is delayed."

No other hospital in the district admits or treats coronavirus patients.

Although the number of Covid patients is increasing, treatment facilities are yet to be upgraded at the PMCH, where the 100-bed coronavirus unit is operating from last month.

Due to the lack of adequate oxygen support and facilities for identification the disease, many patients are deprived of proper and timely care.

A month ago, Pabna was quite safe with an insignificant number of Covid-19 patients identified before the Eid-ul-Fitr. But the situation has rapidly worsened after the festival and now Pabna is one of the red zones in the country.

A total of 447 Covid positive patients were identified till June 30 while the number was just 36 till May 31. Eight people died with Covid-19 and 12 others died with symptom of the disease during this period, sources said.

The Covid unit at the PMCH provides general treatment, not the specialised care needed for coronavirus patients.

"We are handling mild and moderate Covid patients, we don't have the ability to give proper attention to critical patients. We are just giving treatment to patients by observing their symptoms, not having diagnostic facilities," said Dr Saleh Mohammad.

"Due to the lack of central oxygen system and ICU support, we are trying to handle patients with normal medicine and cylinder oxygen support.  If they need more treatment, they are sent to Rajshahi or Dhaka."

Dr Saleh mentioned that most of the patients are getting treatment at home at this stage. If they come to hospital, "We do not know what will we do."

If necessary logistic support is not ensured, the crisis would be serious, he added.

4-BED ICU LIES UNUSED

A four-bed intensive care unit (ICU) with a ventilator was inaugurated at the PMCH in 2017 but it is yet to start operation.

Asked about this, Dr Abul Hossain, assistant director of the PMCH, said there are four beds and one ventilator at the ICU.

"We need three more ventilators, central oxygen support and technical manpower for running the ICU. We have repeatedly sent letters to the higher authorities in this regard but we are yet to get those"

NO RT-PCR LAB

In the absence of an RT-PCR lab, Pabna people are mostly dependent on the RMCH for Covid tests. But because of the long queues there, they do not get the test reports timely.

Talking to this correspondent, Dr Mehedi Iqbal, civil surgeon of Pabna, said people from eight districts go depend on the RMCH lab for Covid tests.

"Due to this, I have sent many samples to Dhaka for tests. We are trying for a RT-PCR lab in Pabna," he added.