Despite the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, Rajshahi City Hospital, one of the large hospitals in the city with modern facilities, has remained closed for more than a year due to the authorities' incompetence.
With most hospitals failing to keep up with the increased number of Covid-19 patients in the city, locals say that if the hospital had been open during the pandemic's worst phase it would have been possible to treat many more patients.
The hospital was leased out to “Celltron”, a medical equipment manufacturing company, two years ago. During the outbreak of the pandemic in March of last year, the city corporation ordered the hospital's operations to be halted in order to convert it into a specialized Covid-19 facility.
The city corporation asked the company to reopen after three months of the shutdown since other hospitals had been chosen to treat Covid-19 patients. However, citing significant losses, the corporation decided not to reopen the hospital.
The hospital's shutdown resulted in the layoff of 65 individuals, including four medical officers, six nurses, lab technicians, ultrasonologists and dentists.
After taking the hospital on lease, Celltron increased the price of tickets for the outpatient department from Tk10 to Tk100. Previously, pregnant women could receive maternity-related services from the hospital for only Tk75 for a period of ten months. That service was likewise discontinued by the corporation.
According to city corporation sources, the 25-bed hospital was built in 1995 in the Raninagar area of the city to provide medical services to general people at low cost.
Maternity-related services along with the inpatient department were added the following year. At the time, a patient could buy a ticket for Tk10 and get treatment for a week along with medicine.
According to Rajshahi City Corporation Chief Health Officer FAM Anjuman Ara Begum, "On average, 8 to 10 patients were always admitted to the hospital for treatment. And around 60-70 patients used to take treatment in the outpatient department."
ABM Sharif Uddin, CEO of Rajshahi City Corporation, said, "At the beginning of the pandemic, the Celltron authorities were asked to stop medical services for several months. The plan was to make the hospital a dedicated Covid hospital. But later the ID Hospital and Mission Hospital were selected for that purpose. When the Celltron authorities were asked to reopen the hospital again, they failed to do so, citing losses."
"The mayor has already spoken to councillors regarding the reopening of the hospital. The hospital will be opened under the management of the city corporation or it will be leased out. The mayor has a plan to construct two more buildings in the hospital. There are also plans to build a link road to the Zeropoint-Talaimari main road to make it easy for patients to come to the hospital."
Sheikh Md Fauzul Mubin, managing director of Celltron, said, "We incurred a loss of Tk36 lakh in the three months of closure at the beginning of the pandemic.”
The hospital was equipped with 20 modern beds, a cabin with AC, and an operation theatre. But both doctors and patients were reluctant to come there due to problems related to the connecting road, he added.
He added that the city corporation had promised to renovate the road but had failed to follow through on the pledge.
"In the first year, we ran the hospital well. Initially, the outpatient department charged a fee of Tk100. But after three months it was made free for the patients. The focus of our business was the in-patient department. But as the number of patients fell, it was not possible to earn back our investment," said Fauzul Mubin.
