ICU facilities: When will the health ministry wake up?
Md Shaheen of Feni died simply because he could not avail treatment at any Intensive Care Unit (ICU). This is not only a tragic incident, but it also points to the sick state of our medical system. Having received head injuries in a motorbike accident, Shaheen was rushed to government and private hospitals in Feni, Chattogram and Dhaka, but nowhere were there any vacant ICU beds. He died more or less without medical treatment.
The government authorities spew out rhetoric about developments in the health sector, but this hardly tallies with the real state of affairs. According to Prothom Alo reports, there are no ICU facilities in government hospitals in 22 districts of the country. Patients in critical condition, their lives in danger, require ICU facilities. Such specialised facilities are extremely costly in private hospitals, quite beyond the means of poor people, even of the lower and lower middle class. As for the government hospitals which do have ICU facilities, these are way too inadequate to meet the demand.
The civil surgeon of Lalmonirhat district said that when patients are in need of ICU facilities, they refer them to Rangpur Medical College. This happens in many other districts too. When Covid-19 broke out, the pitiful state of ICUs in the country came to the limelight. Certain hospitals at the time set up makeshift ICU units. But merely opening up ICU units is not enough. The appropriate staff and equipment must also be ensured. Many hospitals have ICU beds, but no specialist physicians. It requires 13 round-the-clock physicians to run a 10-bed ICU.
Secretary General of Bangladesh Medical Association (BMA), Ehteshamul Huq Chowdhury, told Prothom Alo, during the corona pandemic that started three years ago, the head of government had directed that ICU services be started up in every district. This has not happened due to the negligence of the ministry and the health directorate. This is unfortunate.
How much longer will the people have to face this misfortune? According to the health directorate, till 2021 there were 548 ICU beds in the government's specialised hospitals and 348 in the district hospitals. Last year these facilities were added to a few more hospitals. There are around 1000 ICU beds in private hospitals of the country.
Such health services are extremely inadequate for a country with such a large population. We do not want anyone else like Shaheed to die due to the lack of ICU facilities. ICUs must be installed in all the district hospitals that lack these facilities. Adequate staff and equipment must also be provided. Infrastructure alone cannot provide treatment.
There are often news reports of medical equipment lying uninstalled and unused for years on end in various hospitals. Even after being installed, these are not used due to the lack of skilled technicians.
It must be seen why the head of government's directives have not been carried out and who is responsible for this. The picture of our health system revealed during the Covid-10 outbreak, was shameful. If we do not want this condition to deteriorate any further, the government must adopt integrated and sustainable measures. Isolated and scattered initiatives will not yield results.