Absence of a designated boss, a shortage of funds, a crumbling chain of command – all kinds of problems imaginable – have pushed the Dhaka Shishu Hospital to the verge of a complete breakdown.
The authorities fear that they will not be able to provide any kind of service to the poor patients from next month due to severe fund crunch.
The hospital has been run for more than four months without a chairman of the board of management, the highest policy-making body of the country’s biggest child healthcare facility.
That has meant that there was no one who could approve a budget that would enable the government to allocate the funds necessary for the hospital to carry out its expenditures.
Hospital Deputy Director Hossain Shahid Kamrul Alam told the Dhaka Tribune: “We are in really big trouble. We are passing the most difficult time in the history of Dhaka Shishu Hospital. The previous financial year ended on June 30. We still do not have a budget for this year. Over the last one month or so, somehow we managed funds for food and medicine for those patients who are to be treated for free. But it will not be possible anymore from the coming month [August].”
The finance committee of the hospital prepares a Tk250m budget every year, which the board of management approves.
Despite being seven months into the year, the work for preparing this year’s budget has not been approved because of the chairman’s resignation.
Seeking anonymity, several high ranked officials of the hospital told the Dhaka Tribune that the hospital has fallen prey to dirty politics by the doctors.
They said despite there being a rule that the board of management must sit at least once a month, there had not been any such meeting since December 8 last year.
Moreover, the health ministry was unable to find anybody fit for the post of chairman of the board of management, which was left vacant four months ago when Professor Dr Mahmudur Rahman resigned on March 10, they said.
They also said there were two conflicting groups of the Swadhinata Chikitsak Parishad (Swachip), the ruling party backed doctors’ association, at the hospital.
These two groups have allegedly been doing all sorts of backdoor lobbying to bring their favourite candidate to the vacant chairman’s post.
Sources said that was one of the biggest reasons why the ministry had failed to appoint a chairman even after four months.
The Dhaka Tribune has also learnt that hospital Director Dr Manzur Hossain has remained absent for the last 10 days, citing physical illness as a reason.
However, this correspondent has come to know about a rumour that the director’s life had been threatened by some miscreants a few days ago, prompting him to keep away from the hospital.
The Dhaka Shishu Hospital was established in June 1977. Around 700 patients come to the 560-bed hospital from different parts of the country every day for treatment.
The patients in 45% of the beds, that is 256, get free of cost treatment. They do not need to pay anything at all for bed rent, food, medicine or clinical tests.