Combating coronavirus: Ctg General Hospital receives 10 ICU beds, 10 ventilators
ICU to open within short time
Chattogram General Hospital (CGH), the oldest and second largest government hospital in the port city, is going to open an intensive care unit (ICU) within short time.
Authorities of the hospital received 10 ventilators and 10 ICU beds from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare this afternoon, reports our Chattogram staff correspondent.
Dr Asim Kumar Nath, superintendent of the hospital, said, "A technical team from Dhaka will come to the hospital soon to set up the instruments and logistic facilities including central oxygen supply system and negative air pressure," he told The Daily Star.
Mamunur Rashid, an associate professor of Clinical Tropical Medicine in Bangladesh Institute of Tropical and Infectious Diseases (BITID), told The Daily Star that most of the Covid-19 patients die due to respiratory failure and so a hospital designated for treating Covid-19 patients should have ICU facility.
Among the government hospitals in Chattogram, at present only Chattogram Medical College Hospital (CMCH) has an ICU of 12 beds.
Dr Hasan Shahriar Kabir, Chattogram divisional director of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), said, "Initially, it was decided that five ventilators would be given to CGH but we requested the health ministry to make the number double considering importance of the hospital for treating Covid-19 patients."
"Finally, the ministry decided to provide the hospital with 10 ventilators," he added.
Chattogram General Hospital is one of three hospitals in the port city that have been designated by the government for treating coronavirus patients. A 100-bed isolation ward has been opened in the hospital recently.
A Covid-19 positive patient has been undergoing treatment at the hospital since Thursday.
Under this circumstance, it was a much-awaited demand from the port city dwellers to open an ICU at the hospital so that patients can get support of ventilators in critical situation.