The High Court has issued a rule asking the authorities concerned to explain why the negligence at the National Institute of Cancer Research and Hospital (NICRH) should not be declared illegal.
The court on Thursday also directed the government to suspend the retirement facilities of the outgoing director of NICRH Prof Dr Md Moarraf Hossen for negligence in preserving and protecting equipments including that of the ICU at the hospital until getting court clearance.
The HC bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Md Mostafizur Rahman passed the order and issued the rule on a suo moto move, while two lawyers Barrister Monoj Kumar Bhoumik and Md Emdadul Haque brought a newspaper report titled ''ICU on sickbed'' to the bench’s notice.
The court also ordered the health secretary and director general of Directorate of Health Services (DGHS) to form a committee to conduct an enquiry into the allegations of negligence of NICRH authorities in purchasing and preserving the treatment equipment for the hospital. They were instructed to submit the probe report within 30 days.
Confirming the court order Advocate Md Emdadul Haq said: "Government has allocated budget and the authority already bought this kind of costly life saving machineries including ICU setup but nothing has been used for public interest so far. The authority has left the machineries unused. So we have taken the matter into court."
According to the newspaper report, 12 years ago the hospital authority bought eight modern artificial repertory ventilator (ARV) machines. But none of the Tk70 lakh machines (each) were used for any purpose.
Although the central oxygen supply system was installed three years ago, the ventilators were not installed. After years of neglect, the motherboards of the ventilators have been stolen, rendering them completely useless.
So right now, the cancer hospital's ICU has no artificial ventilation facilities for critical patients.
The report also says, many other medical equipments have been kept idle at the hospital, same as the ARV machine. Two arterial blood gas analyzer, an aphaeresis (cell separator) machine and at least four bronchoscope machines have been lying abandoned in the hospital.