The New Nation - Internet Edition

Sheikh Arif Bulbon

Patients arriving at the Emergency Ward of the Sir Salimullah Medical College and Hospital, known as Mitford Hospital, are deprived of proper treatment due to shortage of medical equipment, power and water.

While visiting the hospital, this Correspondent found bloodstained cottons and gauges scattered on dirty, potholed floors, ceiling fans hanging on rusty iron rods, and spit all around the walls speak of the filthy and unhygienic condition of the Emergency Ward at Mitford Hospital.

"There is no way to sterilise equipments before use here because we do not have any gas supply. We have to use spirit and soap and normal water for sterilising. But there are times when we don't have supply at all," said a nurse at the city's second largest public hospital.

The Emergency Ward was shifted to its present site, which happened to be a godown only last year.

"The previous Emergency Ward was a better place with tiles and required medical equipment," said an Emergency Medical Officer (EMO), who has been working there for the last four years.

If 50 people come to the emergency department in case of any accident, it would not be possible to provide them with all the necessary treatment, said the EMO adding "We do not have an adequate casualty service yet."

A large number of people from the southern part of the city depend on this hospital established in 1820 on the bank of the River Buriganga.

People from Keraniganj and other places across the river receive treatment at this hospital, which can hardly accommodate all the incoming patients, said a senior physician of the hospital.

About the garbage that remain scattered inside the toilets and on the floors in other parts of the hospital, he said it doesn't depend only on the hospital staff, but it is also the responsibility of patients and their attendants who dump them at corners although there are dustbins all around. Tender to repair the emergency department, dormitory for doctors and nurses are also under process, he said.

The stench at the dirty corridors of the 600-bed hospital forces doctors and visitors to put handkerchiefs on their noses, witnesses said. The emergency section has four rooms with wastes, cracked floors and without windows. The rooms contain six observation beds.

This correspondent found that medical wastes were carelessly tossed into metal buckets, which have little inside than outside. The only ventilation system was provided through a few holes on top of the brick wall in only two of the rooms. Electric fans were suspended on long iron rods from the almost dilapidated ceiling. The toilets, kitchens and floors of different wards of the over-crowded hospital were littered with garbage.

To stop spreading of dusts, the employees of the emergency section sprinkle water in the potholes five to six times each day, said a Class IV employee.