Lokman Ali who runs a small business in Agamasi Lane in the older part of Dhaka, was recently taken to the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) in the capital’s Sher-e-Bangla Nagar after he felt chest pain.
After primary examination, doctors found some complications with his heart, got him admitted to the NICVD hospital and asked him to run some tests, including angiogram.
Two days later when the doctors asked him whether did the tests or not, Lokman said he could not because the cost of doing an angiogram in the private diagnostic centre that he went to was Tk12,000, an amount that he could not pay.
“I am a poor man. How and where will I get so much money?” Lokman inquired.
He had to go to an expensive private diagnostic centre because four out of the five catheterisation laboratories at the NICVD were out of order and so he would have had to wait a few days for doing an angiogram there at low cost.
Hospital sources said the equipment at the only working cathlab was showing signs of disorderliness because it was taking the added workload of the other four out-of-order labs.
Every now and then the equipment would freeze in the middle of an examination and the performance level has also fallen to one fourth, sources said.
Sources said cathlab 1 was closed two years ago, Cathlab 3 about a year ago,Cathlab 2 four month ago and Cathlab 5 was closed about a week ago. Only cath lab 4 is now in order.
Seeking anonymity, a specialist doctor of the NICVD said most the equipment at the cath labs were outdated and not fit for taking heavy load.
Many of the equipment had gone past their optimum levels a few years back and were currently being operated by frequent repairing at the cost of huge sums, he said.
The specialist also said a new angiogram machine would cost the hospital Tk60m to Tk80m, depending on where it was bought from.
Another specialist at the hospital said the expensive equipment is not run with care. The authorities were supposed to buy three air conditioners (AC) along with the last cath lab machine that was brought a few years ago, but only one AC was bought.
He also said sometimes the experienced and specialised technicians deliberately stay absent during duty time, resulting in the fact that many unskilled and non-specialised technicians run these complicated high-end machinery.
This might be a reason why the equipment get out of order so frequently, he suggested.
Besides, there were some expensive but unnecessary machinery at the hospital, like the Stem Therapy and Renal Guard machines, which were bought spending millions but had never been used, he said.
NICVD authorities has been planning to buy an angiogram machine for three years. The tender procedure has already been completed but the health ministry was not allowing them to buy it, sources said.
Ministry officials have reportedly told Professor Dr Abdullah Al Shafi Majumder, director of the hospital, that two new angiogram machines would be bought for the hospital through the Central Medical Store Depot (CMSD).
Hospital officials said at present the “lone” running cath lab could run 10 to 12 tests per day at best. In the past it had conducted as many as 50 tests on a single day.
Most patients who come to the hospital have to go back without taking any treatment or doing any test. Only a few ultra-poor patients keep waiting for months in a long queue for getting a test done, sources said.
The cath lab generally conducts angiogram, angioplasty, PCI, PTMC, TPM, PPM, EPS and RFA, device closure, and heart and vascular surgery.
There are also allegations that a number of unscrupulous hospital staff, including doctors and technicians, who are involved in the business of some private cardiac hospitals, force poor patients to go to private hospitals like Urobangla, Al-Helal and Metropolitan for treatment.
More often than not, the keens of the serious patients do not have option but to go these private hospitals because the NICVD hospital is not up to the task.
Hospital director Prof Majumder told the Dhaka Tribune that it was true that they had been facing some problem in providing service to the patients because there were some old machines that were out of order.
He claimed that there were only four, not five, cath labs at the hospital and that only two of them were out of order. He also claimed that both those out-of-order cath labs would be up and running by June.
The 414-bed NICVD was established in 2011 with Intensive Care Unit, Coronary Care Unit, Post Coronary Care Unit, wards and cabin facilities.
