Ctg hospitals not ready
Although doctors, nurses and health workers at port city hospitals are ready to provide treatment to coronavirus-infected persons, the healthcare centres are not yet well equipped to handle such patients.
The medicine unit of Chattogram General Hospital has recently set up a 100-bed isolation ward. Patients of the ward were either discharged or shifted to other wards, said sources at the hospital.
While visiting the ward this week, this correspondent saw the ward's windowpanes were broken in many places while only five beds had glass partition.
Wishing anonymity, a nurse at the ward said they were provided with some handgloves, disposable gowns and goggles but were not given any specific training on how to deal with such patients.
"We have been ordered to perform our duty… that too without any instruction or preparation," said another nurse. "We are also in fear; we don't know what to do."
Doctors at the hospital are also somewhat perplexed.
"The general ward was declared an isolation unit in haste. But the hospital does not have any ICU support, which is necessary to treat critical patients," said a physician.
Meanwhile, the Directorate General of Health Services instructed Bangladesh Institute of Tropical and Infectious Disease (BITID) in Fouzderhat of Sitakunda upazila to introduce a 50-bed Covid-19 ward.
While visiting the hospital on Tuesday, it was seen that the renovation work was still going on at the ward.
Asked, Dr Mamunur Rashid, an associate professor of Clinical Tropical Medicine at BITID, said the ward will be ready soon. He, however, said, "We can keep a patient isolated but that alone is not enough to treat the affected person properly."
"Most Covid-19 patients die due to respiratory failure. Critical patients need ICU support, which we do not have," said the doctor.
"Patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome need uninterrupted oxygen support but the hospital does not have any central oxygen supply system," he said. "The isolation ward should be negatively pressurised, which we don't have."
Negative room pressure is an isolation technique used in hospitals and medical centres to prevent cross-contaminations from room to room.
"Besides, the hospital does not have adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) and lacks facility to test Covid-19," said Dr Rashid. "We have already send samples of suspected patients to IEDCR," he said.
The same situation prevailed at Chattogram Railway Hospital, where 50 beds have been assigned for coronavirus-affected persons. But the doctors said they were not ready to treat such patients yet.
Asked whether doctors and nurses at the hospital are prepared, Imtiaz Ahmed, chief medical officer, said, "Even I'm not prepared… how can I say doctors and nurses are. It's a new disease… we don't know a lot about it."
"Besides, we do not have any PPE and other equipment at this moment," he said.
On the other hand, Chattogram Medical College Hospital, the largest state-run healthcare institution in the division, has set up a 30-bed isolation unit.
While visiting the ward recently, it was seen that there were individual rooms dedicated for patients so that they can remain in isolation.
One of the nurses at the ward said they are also in fear of contamination as no one seemed to know much about the virus.
Contacted last week, CMCH Director Brig Gen Mohsen Uddin Ahmed said, "We are prepared to handle covid-19 patients. We have also dedicated an ICU bed for such patients, if needed. Besides, we are taking initiative to train our staff members."
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