Reza Mahmud :
Intensive Care Unit beds are dearer due to the ongoing covid-19 pandemic while a section of dishonest hospital owners are making extra money showing their normal beds as ICUs.
Patients suffer as most of such hospitals charge Tk 40 to 50 thousand for each day in their so called ICU beds.
In most cases, the patients die or change hospitals after spending huge amounts of money without getting proper medical services.
As per health experts, an ICU bed requires a great combination of different life saving equipment, logistics with multiple specialists, consultants and other technical hands for 24 hours.
Several substandard hospitals are doing unholy business showing their general beds as ICU beds to helpless people who seek such beds for their near ones seriously ill.
Dr. Mohammad Salahuddin Mollah, Member of Covid-19 team at Rajarbagh Police Lines Hospital in the capital said, as a physician, he got numbers of allegations about such fake and false ICU beds in hospitals in different locations including Moghbazar, Dhanmondi and adjacent areas.
Public health said, ICU beds require basic equipment including ventilators for invasive and/or non-invasive ventilation, hand ventilating assemblies, suction apparatus, airway access equipment, including a bronchoscope and equipment to assist with the management of the difficult airway, vascular access equipment, monitoring equipment, both non-invasive and invasive, defibrillation and pacing facilities, equipment to control patient’s body temperature, chest drainage equipment, infusion and specialised pumps, portable transport equipment, specialised beds, lifting/weighing equipment and access to ultrasound for placement of intravascular catheters.
The ICU should be a separate unit within the hospital with access to the emergency department, operation theatres, radiology, and interventional cardiology and trauma unit where relevant.
Experts said, any hospital that deals with chronic, emergencies and critical patients needs to have High Dependency Unit (HDU) and ICUs. Having this units are essential to deal critical patients to save lives.
When hospitals establish these units they need to have special beds with the equipment.
Trained doctors trained apart from generalists other specialists who can deal emergency patients with qualified and trained in special branches like Emergency Medicine, traumatologists and Critical medicine, cardiac specialists are needed for ICUs.
There are hospitals not equipped with required equipment having not even specially trained doctors, nurses and other logistics are deceiving people.
Whenever any patients and their relatives call for a private ambulance the drivers of those vehicles carry patients to certain so called hospitals where a real ICU bed is not possible.
But the authorities of those hospitals influence the patients to get admitted saying they have ICU beds.
In most cases, they fall into traps of ambulance drivers and several dishonest agents working in different hospitals.
Talking with The New Nation, Lincon Mondol, an executive of Hospital 27 in Dhanmondi area said they have well equipped ICU beds. Opinion of people about the quality of the beds may however others, he said.
When contacted, Professor Dr. M. Muzaherul Huq, former Advisor of the World Health Organisation told The New Nation on Tuesday, “Many of those hospitals do not have essential manpower and other logistics to run emergency, HDU and ICUs but they are admitting critical patients. These hospitals should be either closed or advised to organise these units as per requirement.”
He said, the health authorities need to look into the matter with its officials who deal with hospitals and quality of care.
When contacted, eminent Virologist Professor Dr. Nazrul Islam, former Vice-Chancellor of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University told The New Nation, “The health authorities have no sufficient manpower as well the wish to control the misdeeds of those private hospitals.”
He said, “There is no policy yet for controlling private hospital anarchies against the people’s right to get proper medical services.”
