Awful drainage a nuisance at Kushtia General Hospital

Believe it or not, it takes just a moderate rain to flood the main entrance and the road leading to Kushtia General Hospital with the dirty water and waste from the adjacent drains.

The 250-bed hospital, serving as a major treatment centre for about 50 lakh people of Kushtia, Jhenidah, Meherpur and Chuadanga districts, has to provide treatment for indoor and outdoor patients numbering much more than its usual capacity every day.

The hospital, which is also the temporary centre of Kushtia Medical College, attracts rising number of patients as many specialist doctors attend there.

Added to that, a PCR Lab has been set up here recently to provide treatment for the Covid-19 patients.

There is a mosque and the town's main post office next to the main entrance of the hospital.

But the two drains along the sides of the road often remain clogged, causing problem for disposal of the waste from the toilets and urinals in the whole area.

As the road leading to the hospital is old and low, it gets littered with garbage if there is a little rain or waterlogging on the road for any reason.

"The years-long problem poses serious health risk but the municipal authorities did not make any positive response, despite our written request on several occasions," said the hospital's resident medical officer Dr Tapas Kumar Sarkar.

​Numerous patients and their relatives expressed extreme anger.

A relative of a patient named Nur Alam Dulal said that he refrained from entering the hospital to avoid the nuisance of passing through the filth.

Kushtia-3 Sadar constituency lawmaker Mahbub-ul-Alam Hanif, also joint general secretary of ruling Awami League, said, "Kushtia municipality had planned to construct the drain along with the road a long time ago but unfortunately it is yet to be implemented. I will inquire into the matter."

Kushtia Municipality's Executive Engineer Rabiul Islam claimed that he did not know anything about the written complaint of the hospital authorities about the matter.

"A work order has been issued for the construction of new roads and drains. The contractors will start work soon," he said.