AppId is over the quota
Kamal Hossain Talukder bdnews24.com Correspondent
Dhaka, Oct 24 (bdnews24.com)?Patients at Dhaka Medical College Hospital's Burns unit are put through agonising wait and spending for delays in releasing project funds.
They are then forced to buy from a simple gauze bandage to costly drugs, a bdnews24.com investigation suggests.
Doctors say they have not been able to supply necessary drugs and accessories to the patients since June this year when the 50-bed project, begun in 2003, ended and the government slipped it into a new five-year project.
"But the money is yet to be released," Dr Samanta Lal Sen, project director of the Burn unit, said acknowledging the distress of the patients there.
"At least 10 doctors and 14 staff are not getting their salaries for the same reason," he added.
Director (hospital) of the Directorate General for Health Mamtaj Uddin Bhuiyan blamed donors' tardy process of releasing funds and said the problem would be 'resolved soon'.
"It was inserted into a new project. It takes time to get donors' funds," he said "The World Bank and other donors are delaying (the release of) their funding."
"It (Burns unit) was supposed to go under revenue budget, but did not," he added.
At least 300 patients, mainly poor, have been found spending worrying moments at the unit, only of its kind in Bangladesh, on Sunday during a visit to Bangladesh's largest public hospital.
Doli Akhter with no-one but the crippled husband with her said she had bought everything in the last one month.
The 42-year old housewife suffered severe burns while cooking.
A builder, Abdul Khalil, said he had spent nearly Tk 60,000 in the last one month after being electrocuted.
"How I can afford such huge costs being a simple builder?" he asked.
Elachi Begum, mother of a 24-year old patient, wondered whether it was a government hospital.
"I knew it's a government hospital. But now I have to buy everything," she said while narrating her last one month's experience in the hospital with her daughter battling for life.
Professor of plastic surgery Sazzad Khondaker said patients' woes would have increased further if the unit were not a part of their department.
"Our department (plastic surgery) is with the hospital, that's why we can provide at least some cottons and gauze bandages for a few patients from the hospital (DMCH) supply," he said.
Doctors say a burn patient needs at least seven to ten times more cottons and bandages than a normal surgical patient. A patient with severe burn needs nearly Tk 5,000 worth of drugs and accessories like cotton and bandages a day.
Prof Khondaker said the crisis would be resolved once funds got released.
A doctor of the Burn unit, Samiul Alam Sohan, who is not getting salary for the same reason, told bdnews24.com that he was feeling the pinch of daily life.
"It's tough," he said, "When people are struggling to meet both ends meet with their regular salary in this (high priced) market, how can I manage?"
bdnews24.com/kt/nih/bd/0942h
Source: bdnews24.com
Read More on Noakhali News
No comments:
Post a Comment