Narail Hospital Situation improves slightly

Services at Narail Sadar Hospital have improved to some extent over the last one week with the attending doctors making sure that no one is absent there.

But the visibly embarrassed hospital authorities say patients will get desired services only after the government provides them with necessary workforce. 

The 100-bed public hospital in the country’s southwestern district recently came under spotlight following an impromptu visit by Bangladesh one-day captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, who is the lawmaker from Narail-2.

During the visit to the hospital at his home town on April 24, Mashrafe found four doctors had gone AWOL.

A video of his visit went viral on social media and sparked huge criticism among the people against the absentee doctors, prompting the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) to suspend the four.

However, a number of doctors questioned the language the Tigers captain used while talking to one of the absentees over phone. Mashrafe later said he was sorry if the doctor was offended by his language.

The visit has seemingly brought at least some changes.

Four doctors are assigned to round-the-clock roster duty at the emergency department. Only two more are available at the outpatients department, Dr Md Abdus Shakur, superintendent of the hospital, told The Daily Star on Thursday.

Visiting the hospital on that day, this correspondent found more than 100 patients waiting at the outpatient department before its opening at 8:00am.

In a long queue, one Parul Begum was standing with her nine-year-old daughter Aysha Siddika, who had been complaining of throat pain for the last two years.

Parul, a marginalised farmer whose husband deserted her nine years ago, said she had taken her daughter to a local quack and a homeopath, but the medicines did not work.

“They suggested taking my child to Narail Sadar Hospital for better treatment,” Parul said, adding that she had to borrow some money to travel to Narail town all the way from Old Danair village in Lohagora upazila.

When her turn came after around two hours, the doctor on duty examined Aysha quickly before prescribing an antihistamine.

Disappointed at the brief examination of her child, Parul returned to the physician after around an hour. She was appeased only when the doctor said her daughter did not need any further treatment as her tonsil problem would subside as she grows up.

Not far away at the hospital corridor, 60-year-old Shahid Sheikh of Lohagara upazila was waiting for an orthopedic consultant for two hours.

Shahid was in the long queue of patients and did not know when the lone orthopedic consultant, who was reportedly at the operation theater at that time, would be available. 

Dr Shakur said around 400 patients were treated at the outpatient department on Thursday. Besides, 226 more were undergoing treatment as resident patients.

This reporter found some patients taking treatment on the floor of a ward.

For this huge number of patients, only 13 doctors -- a superintendent of the hospital, four consultants, one residential medical officer, five medical officers and two emergency medical officers (EMO) -- have been appointed  against 38 posts, said Shakur.

The posts of six senior consultants, nine junior consultants, one radiologist, one pathologist, two EMOs, one dental surgeon and five assistant surgeons, were lying vacant, he added.

The hospital superintendent said they were still waiting for replacements against the four suspended doctors to join. “We are struggling with shortage of doctors. Even we don’t have any anesthetist at the hospital.”       

A medical officer, who did a course on anesthesia, is performing as an anesthetist, Shakur told The Daily Star.

Some doctors have been appointed to the hospital recently, but they are yet to join, said the physician. “Until they join, I can’t say how many doctors we are getting. Once we get them, the crisis might be solved to some extent.”

This newspaper found that the toilets and bathrooms of different wards were in very bad shape as those were hardly cleaned every day.

RMO Dr Mashiur Rahman said it was too difficult for only three sweepers to keep the hospital clean.