A cancer hospital for the people, by people
Ctg Maa o Shishu Hospital ready to build 100-bed facility banking on donations
Chattogram Maa O Shishu Hospital is planning to extend its services for residents of the port city, with a full-fledged 100-bed cancer hospital and research institute.
What is remarkable is that the nonprofit, semi-charitable hospital is planning to go ahead with the Tk 120 crore project mainly with donations from its 9,000 lifetime members and general people of society, the same way it operates its activities.
Hospital authorities said work on a ten-storey building for the cancer hospital will start next month, and it will be possible to provide free-of-cost cancer treatment to poor patients, as well as world-class medical services at low cost for others in near future.
According to hospital sources, authorities took the initiative three years ago to build the hospital, and have been following the procedure to get approval of government agencies, including Chattogram Development Authority, Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission and the Department of Environment.
The building will made on 10 kathas of land near the existing hospital, said Rezaul Karim Azad, treasurer of the hospital and member secretary of the cancer hospital implementation committee.
"The hospital and research institute to be built with financial support of people. We have already made an agreement for supply of medical equipment to the hospital. It will be possible to launch a world class cancer hospital in the next two and a half years."
"So far, we have collected a handsome amount of money, with which we will be able to build the building and procure some equipment. However, there are two main instruments worth Tk 60 crore for detecting cancer, which we will buy with bank loans."
He also expressed hope that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the foundation of the hospital building next month.
Mahmudur Rahman Shaown, a lifetime member of the hospital, told The Daily Star, "Chattogram Maa O Shishu Hospital is a large private hospital in Chattogram funded by people since 1979. If the cancer hospital is started, it will be able to provide this expensive treatment at low cost."
The hospital was started in 1979 as a small paediatric hospital, but has grown into a 650-bed general hospital, making it the largest hospital in the district after Chattogram Medical College Hospital.