Nurses give service to a patient at night lighting candles in Chittagong General Hospital. Photo: Anurup Kanti Das

It is a hospital with 150 beds but the present human resources can only provide treatment to the patients of 80 beds
With severe pain from hernia, Abul Kalam, 35, cried on his bed at the Chittagong General Hospital (CGH). His wife Champa Begum looked nervous. Doctors had twice fixed schedules for his operation. But every time the operation had to be postponed because there was no electricity at the times. Having lost two dates, doctors, nurses and Kalam waited on the third occasion for electricity. Kalam was lucky on the third turn. He returned home after the long waited surgery under proper lights.
Many other patients are not so lucky at the CGH. Sometimes, doctors there are forced to perform critical operations under candlelight, taking huge risk in terms of hygiene and safety of the patients.
One of the two generators at the CGH has been out of order for a long time and the other one, a relatively smaller version, is yet to be installed, officials said.
The generators are taking such a long time to be repaired and installed because of bureaucratic tangle within the hospital administration and also at the Department of Health Engineering.
“Things are not moving at all because there is no administrative officer in the hospital. As a result administrative push required to get the generators fixed is not happening,” said a source at the Accounts Department. “The Department of Health Engineering is also ignoring our pleas to expedite repairs of the generators,” he added.
Established in 1901 over an area of more than eight acres of land, 150-bed Chittagong General Hospital is the oldest in the region. Years of neglect and lack of investment have now left the hospital in tatters.
Frequent loadshedding in the port city interrupts the regular treatment procedure of the hospital. The x-ray machine, ultra sonogram machine, EPI, ECG, pathology, blood bank, morgue and preservation of important drugs instantly become inoperative due to lack of power.
There are two x-ray machines including a digital machine in the hospital but there is no post for the technician to operate the machines. A single technician is working here on deputation from nearby TB Hospital.
There is a consultant in the ophthalmology unit but there is no other doctor or technician in the unit. Even the unit is short of necessary apparatus.
The only consultant of the department of Child Health, Dr Bandana Hore, is going for Post Retirement Leave (PRL) from December 23, 2010.
There is not sufficient apparatus in Dental Department. Even there is no post for dentist. A dentist from another hospital is working here on deputation. But he has no assistant to help him.
On the other hand, orthopedics patients cannot get any treatment in the department as the post of the consultant of orthopedics is lying vacant.
Suchitra Sen from Patiya upazila came to the hospital with bone fracture on December 12. But she had to return without any treatment. Her son, Pintu Sen, said an assistant at the emergency department offered to plaster her fractured hand in exchange for some money.
Emergency Medical Officer Dr Paritosh Das, however, denied the allegations and said routine surgery is performed twice a week -- Saturday and Tuesday. He admitted that the hospital is unable to provide emergency surgery treatment for want of surgeons.
Residential Medical Officer (RMO) Dr Nurul Islam said it is a hospital with 150 beds but the present human resource can only provide treatment to the patients of 80 beds.
Abdul Gafur, the cashier of CGH, said there is no provision for cook in the hospital. There is sufficient stock of medicine but most remain unused as the patients do not want to be admitted to the hospital. While other hospitals in the city fail to cope with number of patients, seats remain vacant at the CGH.
Dr Abu Tayab, a civil surgeon and the superintendent of CGH, said procedure is underway to establish Chittagong General Hospital (CGH) as a medical college hospital with 250 beds after Banga Mata Begum Fazilatunnecha Mujib Medical College Hospital.
We have been writing to higher authorities to man the hospital properly in order to deliver healthcare but nothing has been done,” Dr Tayab said.
When the local lawmaker Chemon Ara Begum raised the issue at the parliament on October 9, in his response, the state minister for power, energy and mineral resources assured that an express line or a double feeder line would soon be installed to solve the problem of power at the CGH. But the promise of the state minister is yet to be fulfilled.
When asked, the Executive Engineer of PDB, Patharghata Branch, Matiur Rahman, said they are working on the hospital line. The technical matters are being examined. “It is not possible to make an express line. We are trying to start a double feeder line there.” He added.
Successive governments have changed the character of the CGH. In 1959 after starting the activities of Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH) it was incorporated with the CMCH.
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare asked the authorities concerned to separate CGH from CMCH to make it a separate hospital with 80 beds on May 1 in 1987. Later, foundation stone was also laid ceremoniously for converting it into a 250-bed hospital on February 20 in 1995. But in 2003 it was officially declared a 150-bed hospital without provision for extra manpower.