Editorial
Editorial

Healthcare in tatters: Health workers must go to the distressed

Healthcare experts had warned already that various water-borne diseases will spread out in the flood affected areas as soon as the water recedes. Especially there looms the risk of a diarrhoea outbreak in these areas due to the lack of pure drinking water. And that’s exactly what happened in reality.

The healthcare system we have here is the one where the patients are required to go to the hospitals, clinics and physicians. The physicians or the health workers do not go to the patients. This might be acceptable under normal circumstances.

But that seems no longer a possibility for many during natural calamities like floods and cyclones. Though the water has receded in many areas the road communication could not be restored yet. In Bangladesh, Upazila Health Complexes are the main support for reaching out health care at the grass root level.

However the problem is that these establishments lack in the necessary manpower, infrastructure, equipment and medicines. The condition of the community clinics that were established to reach out healthcare to remote areas during the Awami League government’s regime is also of the sort that even if they do have the wish to provide healthcare they lack the capability. Besides, not all the villages have clinics either. And, the villages where there is a clinic are visited by the people seeking health care from the surrounding villages.

The communication system in some districts of the eastern region has been completely destroyed by to severe floods that continued for several days this time. There is not even a way to go to the next house let alone the next village. As reported in Prothom Alo, people in the flood affected areas started suffering from diarrhoea, skin diseases, fever, cold and cough as soon as the flood water receded. Plus, sores and skin rashes are being noticed on the hands and feet of many.

Since the flood situation continued for nine days, the elderly and the children are suffering more from fever, cold and diarrhoea in Feni, Noakhali, Lakshmipur and Cumilla districts. Residents of the affected areas complain that many of the community clinics are closed due to waterlogging. The ministry of disaster management and relief has stated that a total of 619 medical teams are working in 11 districts to provide medical services to people in the flood-affected areas.

Then where are these many medical teams are working? Are their activities limited only to the side of the roads and the highways?

Civil surgeon in Feni, Md Shihab Uddin has also admitted that the number of diarrhoea cases is very high in the flood affected areas. The number of patients has increased in all hospitals of the upazilas as well as of the districts. For the time being there is not that much shortage of saline and ORS for diarrhoea.

According to the office of the civil surgeon in Lakshmipur, as many as 40 community clinics and three sub-health complexes on the union level have been submerged underwater. Strong efforts are being made to provide good treatment to the people affected by the flood at various places including the shelters.

The in-charges of all the hospitals and clinics are providing records of how many patients they have received. However, they are saying anything on how many patients they reached out to. When it is not possible for the distressed people to come to the Upazila Health Complexes for treatment, then the health workers themselves have to reach out to them. If there are some issues with boats in this case, those have to be solved as well. Plus, arrangements have to made quickly so that the closed down community clinics can be reopened as soon as the water recedes.

More medical teams should be sent to the affected areas on an urgent basis. Sending only the medical teams won’t do, they should also have the necessary medicines and medical supplies. There should not be even a single day of delay, especially in the areas where there has been a diarrhoea outbreak already.