Getting usual services from hospital: Patients

Healthcare service has almost been restored at fire-ravaged Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital (SSMCH) as the majority of patients returned to the hospital until Saturday.

Some 1,174 patients were shifted to different private and public hospitals in the city after healthcare service at SSMCH came to a halt following a fire that broke out on Thursday afternoon.

Healthcare service at 15 out of 16 wards of the public hospital fully resumed on Saturday, the hospital authorities said.

According to them, only child ward has not yet been reopened as the fire damaged it severely. Child patients are now receiving treatment from other wards of the hospital, they said. 

On the other hand, seven out of 10 Intensive Care Units (ICUs) of the hospital resumed service and six of its patients returned, a top official at the hospital told the FE.

During a visit on Saturday afternoon, this correspondent found that patients were receiving services from different wards.

Patients and their relatives also got satisfied with services provided by the hospital.

Meanwhile, the hospital authority, the health ministry and fire service and civil defence formed three probe bodies to investigate the reason behind the fire. And the probe bodies were asked to submit their reports by today (Sunday).

Talking to the FE, Shahin (50), a relative of a patient, said he took his brother-in-law to emergency unit of the hospital due to gastric problem. “Everything goes on normally at the hospital.”

Saikat, 28, a patient who was admitted to orthopaedic ward of the hospital on February 06, said he went to National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopaedic Rehabilitation on the day when the fire broke out.

“I came back to the hospital on Friday. Now I am getting services from the hospital as usual,” he said.

Jamal Miah (71) said his wife, suffering from throat tumour, was admitted to ward 11 at the hospital eleven days ago. She went to her Keraniganj village after the fire incident took place, he added.

But his wife Hazera Begum returned to the hospital on Saturday and she was waiting for having an operation, he told the FE.

Hazera is getting proper services from the hospital, Mr Jamal said.

Dr Tonmoy, assistant registrar at Medicine Department of the hospital, told the FE that some 80 to 100 patients were admitted to the hospital every day before the fire incident. 

The same number of patients would be admitted to the hospital on Saturday, he hoped, saying that some 40 patients were admitted till 3:00pm on the day.

On condition of anonymity, a physician at emergency unit of the hospital told the FE that a good number of patients came to the unit and received services as usual.

“Everything goes on well here,” he claimed.

Hospital director Prof Uttam Kumar Barua told the FE that day-to-day operation at the hospital would be fully normal within one week.

The hospital formed a seven-member committee to investigate the incident and asked it to submit its report within three days, he said.

All the employees and doctors of the hospital worked even on Friday, a weekly holiday, and took extra pressure to bring normalcy, he added.

No casualties were reported in the fire incident, he said, adding that all the patients were unhurt during safe evacuation.

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