American Hospital struggles on with problems

Central Skin and Social Hygiene Centre, known as American Hospital, at Agrabad in the port city of Chittagong.Photo: STAR

Central Skin and Social Hygiene Health Centre is struggling hard to cope with crowd of patients due to lack of human resources, logistics and fund.
The health centre at Agrabad in the port city, one of the four in the South East Asia, was established by World Health Organisation (WHO) following Brussels Act back in 1956 to check skin and venereal or sexually transmitted diseases (VD or STD).
Being equipped and run by foreign physicians and health workers, mostly from the USA, in the initial years the centre is best known as American Hospital till date.
Sources said having the largest sea port in the region and frequented by foreign crews, Chittagong was selected for the centre as a full-fledged institute with a modern laboratory and an outdoor on 2.14 acres of land. It examined and provided STD treatment only to the foreign crews in the initial years. It, however, later started examining and providing treatment of both skin and STD to general people when it started running by a director under the then Pakistan central government, said the sources.
Sources said, name of the centre spread further with patients thronging there from the city and different districts under Chittagong division after the War of Liberation.
Some 500 patients come to the centre for treatment on an average now. They collect ticket at Tk 5.00 each and get treatment from 8:00am to 2:30pm six days a week excepting Friday.
But, patients get very often frustrated when the centre fails to provide medicine or treatment due to lack of manpower and fund constraint, they said. “I had to return home empty handed yesterday (Saturday) since I came a bit late. But, today I came before 7:00am and could manage a ticket for the treatment,” said Farida Begum, a poor woman from the city's Lalkhan Bazar area.
Md Abul Kalam, a shopkeeper of Madarbari area in the city, was disappointed as he was refused ticket for being late.
“I came here hampering my business and could be satisfied only with a prescription. I was a bit late, but they could have considered my case,” complained Kalam.
Dr Md Akter Hossain Chowdhury, head of the centre, said they can hardly provide treatment or necessary medicine to all the patients everyday.
Of the recognised posts of one senior consultant, three medical officers and a bacteriologist created in 1994, those of two medical officers are lying vacant while there were 16 in 31 posts of 3rd and 4th class employees, he said.
“It is difficult to provide the patients with medicine since we get an allocation of 2.5 lakh as against an approximate budget of over 10 lakh,” said Dr Akter.
“Besides, there is a shortage of equipment and other logistics,” he said.
Kankon Chandra Das, an administrative officer at the centre, said shortage of technicians, health workers and employees seriously hampers the service.” family planning department has set up a godown on large portion of the unused land on the centre premises in 1991.Yet, the centre can be expanded to set up a 20-bed skin and STD hospital or institute on the land, said Kankon.
Sources said a proposal was also made in 2008 to set up such a 20-bed hospital, 10 beds for skin disease and 10 beds for HIV/AIDS patients.
Following the proposal the then director general of Department of Health, visited the centre on May 24 the same year. He said the centre that holds Skin VD (venereal disease) post graduate class and one-year BCPS training on skin and STD can be upgraded to an skin disease and HIV/AIDS treatment centre, sources said.
The DG also emphasised developing indoor facilities and increasing allocation for treatment while directing director of the centre to take steps accordingly. Later, decision was also taken in principle to set up two Skin and STD centres one at the centre and the other at Chankharpool in the capital, they said.
But, no progress was made in this regard till date, they regretted.