Reza Mahmud :
The Covid-19 patients rush to the capital city for treatment due to absence of ICU beds and other emergency services in district and upazila level hospitals amid the deteriorating situation of the infection and death records.
It is creating serious burdens and risking the health care facilities in the capital.
Sources said, a total of 11,525 new Covid-19 cases were detected on Tuesday as a single day highest infection record with test-positivity rate of 31.46 percent.
The fatality reported 163 deaths, one short of highest 164 recorded on Monday.
The Directorate General of Health Services revealed the latest figures through a press release on Tuesday.
Public health experts said, the Indian (Delta) variant is behind the huge surge of the fatal virus in the country.
Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control And Research IEDCR said that about 45 percent of the variant found in samples in May and 78pc in June.
The variant spread across the country which has made the situation grim.
Meanwhile, lack of ICU beds, inadequate oxygen supplies and shortages of high-flow nasal cannulas in local hospitals drove the patients to Dhaka’s health facilities.
The hospitals in the capital abound with the patients coming out from the outside.
On spot visit, in Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Hospital recently it has been found that patients there were from the frontier districts.
Mobarak Hossain (55), a covid patient from Bagerhat district and Popi, 30 another patient from Rajshahi, has been admitted with sever covid-19 infections.
When contacted, Brigadier General Dr. Md. Nazrul Islam Khan, Director, BSMMU Hospital told The New Nation on Tuesday, “The rush of the patients in the capital is due to lack of sufficient ICU beds in local hospitals. Besides, shortages of high-flow nasal cannula and oxygen in those facilities were also among the reasons.”
Similarly, other hospitals in the capital also face the same phenomena.
When contacted, Dr. Asim Kumar Nath, Director of the hospital, told The New Nation on Tuesday, “About fifty percent of Covid-19 patients admitted in our hospital are from the districts and upazilas.
He said, there are instructions to keep patients in districts, but when patients request for admission, we cannot disappoint them on the humanitarian ground.
District sources said, patients are on surge as the infection rates are increasing day by day, but limitation of hospital facilities is driving them to the divisional cities, particularly Dhaka.
In Rajshahi division, Chapainawabganj district considered as hotspot of Indian variant. But there are no ICU beds in the district hospitals.
Similarly, Khulna Medical College Hospital is also overloaded due to huge cases of detection everyday there. Patients who cannot get admission in those hospitals rush to Dhaka every day. When contacted, Professor Dr. M. Muzaherul Huq, former Advisor of the World Health Organisation told The New Nation, “The government must have to arrange emergency medical facilities including ICU beds in upazila and district level hospitals to face the grim situations.”
Professor Dr Abul Bashar Muhammad Khurshid Alam, DG of the DGHS could not be reached for his comments in this regard.
