Shahidnagar Trauma Centre in Comilla, the Tk6-crore establishment which was built to treat the injured in the accidents on Dhaka-Chittagong highway, has recently been turned into the venue of weekly kitchen market for the locals.
Sources said the 20-bed trauma centre had always been riddled with problems. Located in the district’s Daudkandi upazila, the hospital was never fully functional. It was inaugurated on October 6, 2006 by then health and family planning minister Dr Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, but it took nearly two years for the hospital to get power supply, and it never got the gas supply.
In hopes of getting a fully operational hospital, the government re-inaugurated it five years later, on April 30, 2010, by the hands of then health and family welfare minister Dr AFM Ruhul Haque.
However, the double inauguration did little to get things going in the trauma centre, and the service completely broke down when the power connection was cut off last week.
Since then, the hospital premises has been turned into the extension of the nearby kitchen market on Tuesdays and Fridays.
Sources said some local influentials are taking advantage of the hospital’s current situation and leasing off the premises for the kitchen market.
Alam Miah, a local who came to shop at the market, said: “They inaugurated this hospital twice, but it is still far from providing proper medical service. And now we have a market inside the hospital premises to buy vegetables.”
Asked about the disconnection of power supply, Rafiqul Islam, general manager of Comilla Rural Electricity Society 3, told the Dhaka Tribune that the hospital authorities never paid any electricity bills, which is why the connection was cut off.
The Dhaka Tribune contacted Dr Md Mujibur Rahman, civil surgeon in Comilla, in this regard, who said steps were being taken to run the hospital properly.
“We have informed the UNO through the upazila health officer to remove the kitchen market. The Directorate General of Health Services has been contacted to get the hospital fully equipped in order to provide quality medical service,” he said.
