Where will low-income patients go for kidney treatment?
Research is hardly required to know the plight of healthcare in Bangladesh. The tragic condition of treatment facilities in government and private hospitals is revealed in various media reports and television coverage every day. The picture of suffering kidney patients who came for treatment to the nephrology department of Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Medical College Hospital in Bogura on Saturday is alarming. New kidney patients there have to wait up to six months for dialysis. The pressure of patients is hard to manage although dialysis is continued in two shifts six days a week.
The dialysis unit of the Department of Nephrology was started on 17 August 2016 at Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Medical College Hospital. Initially there were only two instruments in the dialysis unit.
At present, the authorities are not able to handle the patients even with 20 machines. Kidney patients are undergoing dialysis at two private hospitals in Bogura, that charge Tk 1,600 to 2,000 for each session. On the other hand, the fee for kidney dialysis in a government hospital is Tk 470.
Well-off people can afford treatment in a private hospital or even abroad. But the government hospitals are the only hope for the poor and lower middle class. There are two methods of treating kidney disease. The first is a kidney transplant, which is very expensive. The second is regular dialysis. The nephrology department has one associate and one assistant professor, one registrar and one assistant registrar and five kidney specialist medical officers.
All posts except associate professor and registrar are vacant. The department is being run with a medical officer and an intern doctor of the medicine department. No action has been taken even after letters were set to create posts and for personnel in the vacant posts. Hepatitis patients have to have separate arrangements for dialysis, which is not available in the hospital.
Patients coming for dialysis not only in the Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Medical College Hospital, but also in almost all the government medical college hospitals in the country have to suffer a lot. Many return without treatment. On the other hand, due to the negligence of the hospital authorities, many unpleasant incidents take place too.
Kidney dialysis at National Kidney Institute and Hospital and Chittagong Medical College Hospital was stopped last Wednesday without prior announcement. Relatives of the patients staged a protest in front of the hospital. It was later learned that the nephrology departments of the two hospitals were leasing our their to be run by a private company. They abruptly shut down the service on account of due bills.
Where the question of patient life is involved, it is important to stop such leasing to private firms in government hospitals. If the government hospital authorities cannot provide medical services to the patients, why did they keep that department open? There are vacancies in departments of all government hospitals in Bangladesh, which need to be filled on an urgent basis. At the same time these hospitals have to be provided with necessary infrastructure and equipment.