DMCH indifferent to patients' suffering

(Left) A padlocked X-ray room at the emergency department at Dhaka Medical College Hospital. (Right) An emergency patient with head injuries waits in outdoor area close to radiology and imaging department to have an X-ray, but they have no access to the remaining two X-ray machines because of the overflow of patients.Photo: Shawkat Jamil

The pathological and diagnostic services as well as radiotherapy at Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) are being seriously hampered, as a number of medical equipment have remained inoperative for over six months, causing suffering to poor patients coming from every corner of the country.
Sources said a number of medical equipment, including ultrasonography and X-ray machines and computerised tomography (CT) scanner, at DMCH remained inoperative due to poor maintenance.
There are six ultrasonography machines at the medical college hospital. Of them, three are working while the rest remain inoperative for long.
Earlier, about one hundred ultrasonography tests were conducted in a day but the number now stands between 50 and 60, sources added.
To do an ultrasonogram, doctors ask patients to come with urinary pressure but on empty stomachs. The patients come here taking only drinking water, but they have to wait for long hours to add to their suffering.
An outdoor patient Zayeda Begum, 40, wife of Delwar Hossain from Konapara under Demra, to The Daily Star that she had come to the Radiology and Imaging department last week without having breakfast as per advice of the doctors.
But she had to wait from early morning till 4:00pm to have the ultrasonography test, said Zayeda, who fell sick in the evening.
The X-ray machine installed in front of the emergency gate to provide services for emergency patients remains inoperative for the last four months. So, the critically ill patients need to be brought to the radiology department much to the suffering to the patients as well as their relatives.
Severely injured patients, especially those who are suffering from bombings or road accidents, are the worst sufferers of taking their X-rays.
Prof Amjad Hossain, former head of Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgery department at DMCH, said in case of severely wounded patients, who have continuous bleeding or break in a bone, they need X-rays in casualty department. Otherwise, their condition might deteriorate and die due to excessive bleeding.
The doctor shared his experience, saying: "If any patient has partial head or spinal injury or even a break in a bone and he or she is taken to the radiology department by a trolley with rough handling from emergency department, their injuries tend to become major ones."
He also said such incidents took place in the hospital several times due to lack of adequate X-ray facilities.
On the other hand, there are five X-ray machines at the radiology department. Of them, one is out of order for one year and two remain inoperative for six months. So, the patients frequently need to get the service to private diagnostic centres, alleged relatives. On an average, 500 patients both from outdoor, indoor and emergency sections come for X-rays.
One of the two CT scan machine went wrong for the last nine months and the condition of the remaining one is also shabby, that could be go out of order any time that expired its services period, a medical technologist of the concerned department said.
Ali Newaz, 50, who hailed from Barura of Comilla, came to the radiotherapy department with cancer in his neck, but he did not get any bed and therapy which was emergency for his treatment. The three radiotherapy machines out of six also remain inoperative for long, sources said.
Meanwhile, all six incubators of the special neonatal unit are not working for over eight months, causing huge suffering to the parents of premature children, particularly the poor.
DMCH Director Bazle Quader, however, told The Daily Star, “Normally, we take an initiative to repair the machines within 24 hours, though most cases it takes more time for repair.”
The only laundry of the large hospital remained idle for several years, he said, adding that it is now under renovation.