Mohona Hospital in the capital’s Panthapath area was temporarily shut down yesterday by the government for allegedly operating without license and neglecting treatment to eminent journalist Zaglul Ahmed Chowdhury.
The decision came a day after the death of Zaglul Ahmed Chowdhury, who was taken to the hospital after falling victim to a tragic road accident on Sunday.
A team of officials, led by Joint Secretary of the Health Ministry Mosharraf Hossain and Professor ABM Abdul Mannan, director of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), visited the hospital around 11am.
After the inspection, they ordered instant suspension of the hospital operations, asking the authority to transfer admitted patients to other hospitals within 24 hours. The ministry also formed a three-member panel to urgently probe into the matter.
Mosharraf Hossain told the Dhaka Tribune: “We closed the hospital temporarily for two reasons. One is alleged negligence of providing treatment to a patient and the other is running a hospital without license. They have the license for a diagnostic centre only.”
“We have also asked them to submit a report on the incident and we will take a final decision after that,” he added.
Tofazzal Hossain, Mohona Hospital Manager said: “Around 230 share holders established the hospital on June 1. Most of the them are doctors and have permanent chambers in different hospital like Dhaka Medical Collage and Hospital and BSMMU.”
“When the patient (Zaglul) came here, we had only one doctor on duty. Dr KM Tarikul Islam, who is a Neurosurgeon took him to the OT and did a CT scan. After seeing the films, the doctor said the patient needed emergency support but did not have an ICU.
“He was admitted around 8.15pm and discharged around 8.30pm. It is not true that we did not give him any treatment,” the manager said.
During a visit to the hospital yesterday, this correspondent saw a shut down notice hanging on the gate of the hospital.
It was found that there were only 30 doctors in the hospital, but most of them were on-call. Eleven patients were admitted in the hospital before it was shut down, but only eight were left as three of them had already been discharged.
