Khulna Medical College Hospital has been facing an acute manpower crisis for years, which is preventing the facility from dispensing the desired healthcare services.
The local authorities and even ministers have repeatedly promised to address the hospital’s manpower shortage but the problem still persists.
Caretaker of the hospital, Dr Md Abdus Samad, said the crisis has been terribly hindering the smooth delivery of medical services for some eight years.
“The skin and venereal disease ward could not be opened yet because of the crisis. I wrote to the authorities concerned to add 1,200 people to the workforce, but they have approved the appointment of a mere 159. Scrutiny is now underway to appoint more people, and recruitment will begin after the Finance Ministry gives the final approval,” he said.
“The number of admitted patients averages 800 every day. The physicians we now have can smoothly serve a maximum of 250 patients but they are treating patients eight to ten times more than that. The health minister visited the hospital twice and promised to take steps to resolve the problem, but that is still at the initial stage.”
The hospital’s organogram consists of 713 posts for first-grade officials and physicians. The number of proposed manpower for the posts is 632 but only 81 are working at present.
The crisis is severe in case of fourth-grade workersm where 108 have been employed against a total of 503 posts and 395 names have been proposed.
There is no doctor in several departments, including cardiology (15 proposed), neurosurgery (nine proposed), pediatric surgery (nine proposed), endocrine surgery (nine proposed), psychology (15 proposed), nephrology (12 proposed), respiratory medicine (nine proposed), physical medicine (nine proposed), and casualty (nine proposed).
The hospital was a 250-bed facility and was elevated to a 500-bed one back in 2008, but services did not improve because of the scarcity of doctors.
Most of the wards in the hospital have admitted patients more than two or three times their capacities. Doctors and nurses often get embroiled in disputes with family members and relatives of patients in the overcrowded wards. There have even been scuffles between the two groups in the past.
Tinku Tarafder, in-charge of the orthopaedic surgery department, yesterday said there were 85 patients in his ward against a capacity of 65.
“Besides, each patient comes with at least three to four relatives who often bombard doctors with questions. They mostly complain about intern doctors, having the prejudice that such doctors do not possess the skills and experience that the patients need. They keep asking for senior and more experienced doctors which often lead to heated arguments,” he said.
Fatema Begum, a patient of the gynaecology department, said doctors sometimes ask to buy the same medicine several times.
“The hospital provides no expensive medicine. I have taken treatment for four days and had to buy all the medicines myself,” she said.
Nihar Ranjan, who came from Kotalipara, said he was taking her ill mother back to the village as her condition did not improve in the last three days.
“There were no senior physicians. My mother was treated only by novice doctors. I have no option but to return to the village.”
