Patients at the 100-bed National Institute of Kidney Diseases and Urology have to pay to hospital employees for a non-paying bed.
The payment ranges between Tk 500 and Tk 5,000. Sometimes it goes beyond that.
The hospital is indulging in such malpractice in utter violation of the government rule that says that a government hospital must have 40 percent no-paying beds so that poor people are not deprived of treatment.
“I got a non-paying bed for my father after waiting for long three months. I had to pay Tk 500 to one Imran who sits at the counter and demanded the money,” said Sayeed Wazed, a homeopathic doctor.
“I myself have seen Imran taking Tk 5,000 from a poor chap with the promise of managing a non-paying bed,” he said.
Some of the doctors said, as the hospital couldn't accommodate the increasing number of patients the corrupt employees take full advantage of it.
When asked, Director of the institute Dr Firoz Khan said he had never received any complaint from the patients about it.
“If any patient files complaints and it is proved, the employee concerned will certainly lose the job their next day,” he said.
In addition to that, this top kidney diseases hospital has shortage of nurses that hinders the activities of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and round-the-clock dialysis of poor patients.
There is no CT scanner at the institute and the unfortunate patients have to go to another hospital for CT scan. Patients sometimes have to go through the same tests repeatedly from outside as the doctors get commission from those tests.
The Dialysis Centre that is supposed to remain open round the clock is closed by midnight. It remains closed on Friday too.
If the condition of a patient deteriorates and he or she needs immediate dialysis there is no way to get that support, complaint the patients.
The costly machines at the hospital remain unclean posing risk of infecting patients with various diseases.
Patients who are enlisted to get regular dialysis for six months have to pay Tk 20,000 at a time, which is quite impossible for poor patients.
The director, however, said it is the decision of the health ministry to take Tk 20,000 at a time.
“It is true that it is difficult for poor patients to manage the amount at a time but in comparison to the private hospitals it is much less,” he added.
He acknowledged that the number of nurses is inadequate at the hospital compared to the workload that has increased with the passage of time.
“Some 81 nurses are working at the institute currently and we need at least 30 more.. When the hospital came into being in 2002 we had only 12 dialysis machines to support 12 patients at a time, which is now 42,” he said.
We also started kidney transplant last year that involves more manpower as the number of patients is now twice as many, he added.