Once a morgue, now a diabetes centre

An abandoned one-storey building of the health department on Abdul Hamid road in Pabna was mostly used to keep dead bodies. But it all changed in 1984 when a few youths came together and turned the ghostly establishment into a facility to treat diabetes patients.

Since then, over two lakh patients have been admitted to this diabetic centre, most of whom would have remained untreated otherwise as the facility provides their service at a minimal cost.

"Pabna Diabetic Association, a non-government organisation dedicated to diabetes patients, was established in 1984, headed by then prominent businessman Afzal Hossain as president and Dr Monwarul Aziz as secretary," said freedom fighter Baby Islam, current chair of the organisation.

When they started bringing untreated diabetes patients into the system in the '80s, the response from people was poor as most of them were unaware of the dangers posed by this chronic disease back then.

"At first we hardly got 5-10 patients a day. However, our gradual awareness programmes inspired many people, so patients started turning in the '90s. Now 800 to 1,000 patients are coming to the centre every day for treatment," said Baby Islam.

"Patients who have cards from the organisation are getting regular health checkups, including blood tests by paying only Tk 100. The doctors of our facility don't charge a penny from them," said Dr Shahinur Rahman, chief doctor at the centre.

Besides, they also provide eye treatment, ENT treatment, dental service and pediatric treatment.

The association has now expanded and built two other establishments in the district -- one at Gaspara in Pabna upazila and another in Kashinathpur in Shanthia upazila -- treating thousands of patients every day.

The success story does not end here. In 2016, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina donated 1.3 bigha land of to the health department on Abdul Hamid road to the association, to build a full-fledged modern hospital.

"We will build a multi-floored diabetics hospital with all modern facilities in place of the one-storey building, where it all started for us," said the current chair Baby Islam.

Contacted, Dr Monisor Chowdhury, civil surgeon of Pabna said, "We (Pabna Health Department) have opened a corner for diabetic patients in all the upazila hospitals this year. We hope to bring all diabetic patients under medical service very soon."