Dhaka Medical College Hospital: Outsiders often do some tasks meant for docs, nurses

More than 200 outsiders with no qualifications whatsoever provide various services to patients at Dhaka Medical College Hospital for money, sources said.

They even stitch small cuts, when doctors and nurses are not around, administer drugs into nebulizers and do bandages on patients at different wards including the burn unit, the sources said.

The issue has come to the forefront after a patient at the neurosurgery department of the hospital died on Friday allegedly after a man administered a drug into his nebulizer.

Due to inadequate manpower, some outsiders have long been working as helpers at the hospital, said Deputy Director of DMCH Khawaja Abdul Gafur.

They are mainly relatives and acquaintances of the hospital employees. However, these helpers are not supposed to provide treatment, Gafur added.

As many as 3,200 to 3,500 patients get admitted and receive treatment indoors while some 5,000 more take treatment from outdoors and the emergency department every day at the DMCH.

At present, the number of class-iv employees, the lowest tier of government employees, is 750, but to give proper services 1,000 more employees should be appointed at this level, said Abdul Khalek, union president of DMCH class-iv employees.

There has been no appointment since 2010, he said.

Eight hundred employees used to work for 900 beds before 2010. The bed number has been increased to 2,600 but the number of employees has remained the same, Abdul said.

Moreover, a new 10-storey building, Dhaka Medical-2, with 600 beds is functioning without any permanent employees, he added. 

At the burn unit, most of the bandaging job, which should actually be done by trained people or doctors, is done by unauthorised outsiders, a source at the DMCH said. 

“We informed the hospital authorities and the health ministry but there was no response. Three hundred employees are required only for the unit whereas there is none,” said Samanta Lal Sen, the coordinator of all government burn units in the country.

The outsiders work under the doctors' supervision, he added.

About 400 patients receive treatment at the unit.

Meanwhile, the hospital authorities have formed a three-member committee to look into the death of Biplob Mondal, 24, who had been admitted to the hospital with head injuries after a motorbike accident in Keraniganj on September 18.

Shahbagh police yesterday produced Sumon, who had administered the drug, before a court. The court placed him on police remand for three days, said Officer-in-Charge Abu Bakar Siddique of Shahbag Police Station.

After an autopsy at Dhaka Medical College morgue, the body was taken to Biplob's village home in Keraniganj.

DMC morgue sources said the body bore head injuries and viscera had been collected from the body to find out if wrong treatment was the cause for his death.

Biplob from Keraniganj, who had been undergoing treatment at the neurosurgery department, suddenly started complaining of breathing problems around 3:00pm on Friday. His relatives sought help from a nurse to put him on a nebulizer but no one attended to him, said his cousin Subash Mandal.

A youth came in and said the nurse sent him. “We did not know who he was. We thought he might be somebody from the hospital,” Subash said.

The youth named Sumon then administered a drug into the nebulizer machine and as Biplob started inhaling, his condition began to deteriorate, he claimed. Biplob died a few minutes later.

Soon after his death, Biplob's relatives caught Sumon and beat him up and handed him to the DMCH camp police, said Sub-Inspector Bachhu Mia, in-charge of the police outpost.

He was later handed over to Shahbagh police.