The Health Ministry has decided to set up more Intensive Care Units (ICU), Coronary Care Units (CCU) and burn units at medical colleges and district hospitals across the country soon.
The burn units will have 20 beds while the ICUs and CCUs will have 10 and 8 beds respectively. The units will be opened at around 40 healthcare institutions.
The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) has told all medical college and district hospital authorities that it would provide instruments and necessary support to implement the decision quickly.
Professor Dr ABM Abdul Hannan, director (medical education and manpower development) of DGHS, told the Dhaka Tribune facilities at ICUs and CCUs at medical colleges and district hospitals are very limited at present.
“If we can improve the facilities, more lives could be saved and the cost of treatment would also go down,” he said.
The professor said the Health Ministry had recently declared burn injury as a “notifiable disease” and had directed all public hospital authorities to register each burn injury patient and send their details to the DGHS from now on.
A notifiable disease is any disease that is required by law to be reported to the authorities.
On June 22, the DGHS issued a circular to directors, civil surgeons and superintendants concerned, asking them to take initiative to open ICUs, CCUs and burn units at their institutes on an urgent basis.
According to the DGHS Health Bulletin 2013, the number of different non-communicable diseases, including heart and kidney complications, cancer, hypertension, diabetes and pneumonia, is on the rise.
At present, there are limited facilities even at ICUs, CCUs and burn units at the healthcare institutions in the urban areas while these units at district hospitals have virtually no facilities.
A number of private hospitals are offering good services to ICU, CCU and burn unit patients but those remain beyond the range of affordability for most of the patients as the cost of treatment is very expensive.
According to DGHS sources, 10-bed ICUs will be opened at state-owned healthcare facilities in Mymensingh, Bogra, Khulna, Faridpur, Dinajpur, Gopalganj, Manikganj, Gazipur, Sirajganj, Kishoreganj, Cox’s Bazar, Kushtia, Pabna, Noakhali and Jamalpur.
Eight-bed CCUs will be opened at district hospitals in Mymensingh, Bogra, Comilla, Khulna Faridpur, Gopalganj, Manikganj, Gazipur, Sirajganj, Moulvibazar, Kishoreganj, Jessore, Patuakhali, Kushtia, Cox’s Bazar and Noakhali.
Meanwhile, Chittagong, Rajshahi, Mymensingh, Sylhet, Khulna and Rangpur medical college hospitals will have 20-bed burn units.
