The health ministry is to form a medical team to conduct a survey of severely injured patients to provide long-term support and rehabilitation for the victims of the Rana Plaza collapse.
The team, comprising specialists from the National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopaedic Rehabilitation (Nitor), will submit its report to the ministry after evaluating the patients’ latest health status.
The survey report will recommend a full treatment regime for each patient, detailing type of hospital and time the patient needs for recovery.
The directive to prepare a patient survey came following a meeting between Health Minister Prof Dr AFM Ruhul Huque and representatives of different hospitals in which Savar victims are undergoing treatment.
Director (administration) of the health department Wednesday issued letters to respective managing directors of DMCH, Nitor, Savar CMH, UHFPO Savar and Enam Medical to help them with the survey.
More than 300 garments workers, who managed to evade death, are now languishing in different hospitals without any hope of leading a normal life again.
“Many survivors have lost hands or legs as they were trapped under concrete rubble, and rescuers had to amputate their limbs to free them. Others are suffering from mental health disorders,” Directorate General of Health Services Dr Khondaker Md Shefyetullah said.
The meeting expressed hope that the team would finish the survey work and prepare a report within the next two weeks.
According to the National Crisis Management Centre, a total of 318 Rana Plaza victims, 37 of them with severed limbs, are currently receiving treatment at various private and public hospitals in and around the capital.
Of them, 115 patients are being treated at Nitor, 23 at Savar Upazila Heath Complex, 62 at Enam Medical College and Hospital, 24 at Centre for the Rehabilitation of the Paralysed, 25 at Savar CMH, five at Sima General Hospital, two at Rezia Clinic, 25 at Dhaka Medical College Hospital, eight at Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital, three at National Kidney Disease Institute, two at NIDCH, 14 at Apollo Hospital and two at Square Hospital.
Meanwhile, two other organisations, Project Hope Nolta Hospital and Community Health Foundation, plan to conduct a separate survey alongside the health ministry's to rehabilitate the Savar victims.
