The local residents are being deprived of the services of Sylhet Diabetic Hospital, equipped with modern machinery and other facilities, as the authorities are stunningly reluctant to make the best use of its resources.
Although many machines used for the treatment of kidney, eye, dental and heart diseases caused by diabetes are in the only hospital outside the capital Dhaka, the service recipients do not even know about it due to the negligence of the authorities.
Even with the introduction of CCU for patients with heart diseases, it has been stagnant for a long time. In addition to the general treatment of diabetics, complex patients are referred to other public and private hospitals in Sylhet.
The hospital was established with a vow to provide services to the poor and helpless patients at low cost, but due to the negligence and indifference of the authorities, it is now going through a critical period.
The hospital has not been able to reach the desired place even in almost three decades of its establishment as it has only moved towards infrastructure without keeping all the services active.
However, the hospital authorities said the hospital, which is suffering from manpower crisis, is being run by the association. Despite the limited number of manpower, more than three hundred patients are being treated there every day for free. They are working to ensure 100 percent service.
The current president and general secretary are busy with their business and politics. It goes without saying that they have no eye on the hospital. As a result, the hospital is running without a guardian.
According to the research, various non-governmental organizations and individuals are providing low cost treatment for diabetes in the hospital. In addition, the hospital has departments of medicine, surgery, nephrology, ophthalmology, gynecology and dentistry to provide treatment for other complex diseases caused by diabetes.
In addition, there are hyperbaric oxygen therapy machines, dialysis and burn skin treatment facilities to treat the digestive tract of diabetic patients. Which is the only one in Sylhet outside Birdem Hospital in the capital Dhaka. There is even a CCU department. Despite having such expensive machines, no service is being provided to the diabetics with these. Despite having a state-of-the-art CCU standard ambulance, patients do not see it. Like a museum. Due to the negligence of the authorities, the hospital has only undergone infrastructural development in the last few years. But the quality of service has not increased at all.
It is learned that with the financial support of AK Khan Foundation, a hyperbaric oxygen therapy machine was purchased at a cost of Tk 20 lakhWith the help of this machine, the hospital has a facility to perform 900 dyalisis every month. But the authorities did not carry out any publicity on the issue.
But due to the lack of experienced operators, the service recipients are being deprived of this service at low cost.
As a result, ordinary patients have to go to private hospitals with extra money and take alternative treatment.
The hospital also has a Phaco machine for treating eye patients. With which it is possible to perform 150 operations 5 times a month. But due to the negligence of the doctors and the tendency of ‘referral’, a few surgeries were performed.
Besides, the hospital has 6 dialysis machines. Although there is an opportunity to do 480 dialysis sessions every day, but the doctors are not doing it. Two dialysis machines are already out of order.
The hospital also has treatment for diabetic gangrene. This is the pre-treatment of diabetic patient’s leg decay. Most of the time, this treatment relieves patients from amputation. Even though there are so many facilities at hand, the city dwellers do not know anything. Even the officials of the association did not notice the issue due to lack of publicity. As a result, the organization is suffering a lot financially. No one has a headache with that.
But it has been seen on the spot that in the case of an admitted patient, a fee of Tk 3,000 is being kept at the beginning. Besides, many more fees are being kept for various tests.
Incomplete CCU, unintroduced telemedicine services, lack of qualified doctors and staffs are also there on the list.
Contacted President of Sylhet Diabetic Association Prof. MA Ahbab said, ‘’CCU is only for name’s sake. I can’t even say how many beds are there. There is only one cardiac machine, ECG and echo machine in that department, nothing more. A CCU cannot run without all required equipments.’’
Saying that there is no need for hyperbaric oxygen therapy machines, Prof Ahbab said ‘’Nothing happens with it. I’ve seen no use of this machine during my 30 year long medical career. These machines were bought a long time ago. What else will happen by looking at these?’’
In the context of dialysis for diabetics, MA Ahbab said that all the dialysis machines we have here are broken. When one is fixed, the other breaks down. There is no profit in this way.
‘‘Only the phadco machines are coming in handy as the eye department is going well with the service. There are also experienced doctors here. There must be some reports. I’ll have to look into it.’’ he added.
Where the grants that are being given by different organizations are, said it is being spend in the services we offer and in salaries. We have some plans to turn it into a for-profit organization.’’
Contacted Prof AK Azad Khan, President of Bangladesh Diabetic Association, he said that, Badas has no authority over these organizations. They are just affiliated with us and have an autonomous body to run all kind of operations.
‘‘They are independent organization. Their Elective body is solely responsible for everything. It is now on their hands how they run it. We can assist them, but cannot direct them.’’
Asked on the allegations against the EC body, he said that BADAS has certain guidelines for the affiliated hospitals to follow, but it has no authority to enforce them. However, if there are irregularities and violations of guidelines, it can only cancel the affiliation, although it won’t have any impact on the operation of the hospital, he added.
