Authorities of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical College (BSMMC) hospital in Faridpur have been struggling with the increasing number of patients in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
The number of doctors assigned for the unit is far from enough and no new recruitment has been made since the ICU was established in 2016, hospital authorities said.
Visiting the hospital, the UNB correspondent found all the first-class posts for the 16-bed advanced ICU to be vacant.
The ICU unit should have had one assistant professor, two junior consultants, two assistant registrars and two medical officers as per the rules but only Ananta Kumar Biswas, Assistant Professor of Anesthesia department, was made in-charge of the ICU as an additional responsibility.
Medical services were being severely disrupted for the lack of enough manpower during this time of Covid-19 pandemic when all ICU beds remain occupied with covid patients.
Dr. Ananta Kumar Biswas said the government had recently appointed four medical officers here. Four other upazila level medical officers work from the Civil Surgeon’s Office. Those who are on duty here have to go to the quarantine after a certain period of time as per the rules. For this, only one rostered medical officer could work outside the in-charge.
“As a result, patients and doctors have to face many problems,” he said.
BSMMC Hospital Director, Md. Saifur Rahman said the ICU of the hospital has been kept open with an assistant professor of Anesthesia Department considering the situation of patients.
“Despite the lack of manpower, we are providing the highest level of service possible with the limited manpower. If manpower was deployed in this critical period, the lives of more people could be saved.”
The number of ICU beds at the Corona dedicated BSMMC hospital is very inadequate compared to the larger number of patients in the south-west. If the government would add more ICU beds and manpower, it would have benefited more patients, the director said.
Source: United News of Bangladesh