Hospital handover delayed over alleged faulty design

Newly built 250-bed Thakurgaon Sadar Hospital. Photo: Star

A Tk 26.69 crore newly constructed building of Thakurgaon Sadar Hospital is lying unused as the hospital authority has refused to take it from the Public Works Department (PWD) citing several ‘faults’ that might hinder the medical care giving process.

The seven-storey building is constructed under a government project to upgrade it from a 100-bed hospital to 250-bed.

The hospital remains overcrowded throughout the year.

Over 400 patients are currently admitted in the old one-storey building. The balconies and corridors were seen packed with patients during a recent visit.

People from not only Thakurgaon but also Panchagarh regularly come to this hospital to take treatment. 

Kazi Erfan Enterprise won the bid in May 2015 for constructing the new building behind the old building inside the same compound.

The work was due to be completed by November 2016.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the building on March 29 last year, but the construction farm finally completed the construction work in August this year.   

On August 26, through a letter, the PWD asked Prabhas Kumar Roy, superintendent of the hospital, to take over the new building.

But the hospital authorities refused to do so because a 10-member committee earlier inspected the building and on September 2 submitted a report that almost every floor lacked basic facilities.

Dr Tozammel Haque, who headed the committee, submitted the findings at a meeting chaired by local Lawmaker Ramesh Chandra Sen. PWD officials were present there.

“The CT scan control room on the ground floor lacks ventilation. There is no toilet for doctors at the outdoor section on the first floor although there are eight rooms for them. Similar condition was seen on the second floor,” says the report obtained by this correspondent.

“There are toilets in the pathology department on the north side of the first floor but there are no signboards indicating which ones are for males and which ones for females.”

An operation theatre is located on the third floor but to one’s surprise there is no basin where doctors and nurses can wash their hands, the report says.

Also, there is no station for the nurses on that floor. No sitting arrangement or toilets were found on the fourth and fifth floor.

On the seventh floor, no room for doctors and nurses had been constructed.

The building lacks modern waste management system and construction of the drainage system is still half-done, according to the committee’s report.

Hospital Superintendent Prabhas Kumar Roy said, “The committee found so many faults in the building. Patients, physicians and nurses will greatly suffer if we accept the building in such condition.”

The hospital authority demanded that PWD should finish the recommended tasks before handing over the building to them.

After hearing the committee, MP Ramesh said, “The handing over process should be halted. The PWD officials must take steps to resolve the issues within a month and then hand it over to the hospital authorities.”

“The Department of Architecture did consult the hospital authority before creating the plan for the building. We followed their design. The hospital authority never raised any objection. I do not understand why they are coming up with so many complains at this stage,” PWD Executive Engineer Mohammad Moniruzzaman said.

“They want additional toilets, basins, collapsible gate and several other items. We will talk to the higher authority on what steps we can take following the lawmaker’s order,” he told this paper.