Medical equipment donated last year to several state hospitals battling the Covid-19 pandemic in Bangladesh is being underused for a lack of skilled operators, hospital officials said, adding to the pressure on already-overworked medical staff.
The donations were part of the Sajida Foundation's Hospital Assistance Programme to provide equipment and medical expertise to four government hospitals in border districts and Covid-19 hotspots.
Bangladesh has reported 1.9 million infections and more than 29,000 coronavirus-related deaths since the pandemic began in 2020. However, its daily infection rate has eased sharply from a peak in July last year when areas bordering India saw a surge in Delta variant infections, overwhelming hospitals. (Reuters tracking data - https://graphics.reuters.com/world-coronavirus-tracker-and-maps/countries-and-territories/bangladesh/)
In response to the July-October surge in cases, the Hospital Assistance Programme installed a total of 32 intensive care units (ICUs) and 34 moderate-care high dependency units (HDUs) in three hospitals at Jashore, Meherpur and Chuadanga, while the hospital at Pabna received additional general beds for COVID patients.
Under the programme, the Foundation procured PPE (personal protective equipment), masks, sanitizers and assisted with the installation of the ICUs and HDUs. It also provided training for staff hired on an ad-hoc basis to work in the ICUs and HDUs.
"We provided critical equipment and training to the hospital staff, and the ICUs and HDUs will continue to be used to treat both Covid and non-Covid patients in the future," Dr. Tariqul Islam, Director of Health at the Sajida Foundation, said on its website - https://sajidafoundation.org/sajida-foundations-covid-hospital-assistance-program/
The foundation said 5,705 people were served by the Hospital Assistance Programme, about two per cent of the country's total Covid-related hospitalisations, and most of those patients (4,375) were treated at the 250-bed General Hospital in Jashore.
The Hospital Assistance Programme was part of the Foundation's Tk. 220 million (US$25.6 million) in Covid-related measures for Bangladesh that was funded by donations from the MetLife Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, local corporate and individual donors.
The facilities and infrastructure provided under the assistance programme were formally handed over to the four hospitals and the Department of Health at the end of September last year for treating Covid and non-Covid patients.
Since then, hospital officials say they have struggled to make optimal use of the units and donated equipment.
Dr. Md. Akhtaruzzaman, Superintendent of the General Hospital in Jeshore where 11 ICUs and 20 HDUs were installed, said the hospital has not been able to hire additional staff to operate the new medical equipment.
He said the hiring process for state hospitals can take up to two years and government does not approve the filling of all job vacancies at the same time.
The 250-bed Jeshore hospital has a total nursing staff of 174 and there have been no new recruitments, she said. Ms Hasina, a senior nurse at the Jeshore General Hospital, said they can deploy 7 nurses to work in the ICUs and HDUs, compared to the required 15 nurses to make the best use of the facilities. The 250-bed hospital has a total nursing staff of 174 and there have been no new recruitments, she said.
"Proper care is not possible with such a poor number of nurses" she told the FE.
The 250-bed General Hospital in Meherpur, a border administrative unit in Bangladesh, has also struggled to hire skilled staff to operate the donated equipment.
As a result, senior specialized nurses have been assigned to work in the hospital's 06 ICUs and 08 HDUs. That has stretched nursing resources at a time when the hospital only has 170 nurses, enough to staff a 100-bed hospital.
In the district of Pabna, the main hospital's unstable power supply meant it could not receive an ICU or HDU, but the Foundation was able to provide 100 general beds for Covid patients.
In Chuadanga, another border district more than 300 kms from the capital Dhaka, the 250-bed General Hospital received 05 ICUs and 06 HDUs but did not have the skilled staff to operate them fully.
Dr. Md. Maruf, a former superintendent of the hospital, said they did not receive support from the central government.
"During my tenure we had applied to Dhaka but ultimately we are yet to get any manpower," he said.
The hospital would like to use the ICUs and HDUs for non-covid patients, but he asked: "Who will operate it?"
Dr. Md. Farid Hossain Miah -- Director (Hospital) of the directorate General of Health and Services, the government agency that implements health programmes in Bangladesh -- told the FE that he was familiar with the equipment and services provided by the Sajida Foundation. "They have donated us all equipment," he said.
But he said they have yet to hire additional staff to operate and maintain the donated medical devices. "We're trying to hire manpower for all hospitals of the country through a number of projects," Miah said.
In an interview with FE, Sajida's Dr. Tariqul Islam said the Foundation does not have the power to dictate to state-run hospitals how to make best use of the equipment and units donated under the Hospital Assistance Programme.
He said the programme hired 209 frontline workers [doctors, nurses and other related people] under two-month contracts to operate the facilities at the government hospitals.
Sajida later retained 7 of the contract workers for the Foundation's own hospital, but Islam acknowledged the government recruiting process is too complex and state hospitals cannot easily recruit the contractors.
The government's hiring process is usually long and centralized, with job vacancies are advertised in newspapers and candidates required to take competitive exams.
The government has recruited 400 anesthesiologists and 8000 nurses in the country over the past two years to strengthen the delivery of health services, but no vacancies were advertised in the four districts hard hit by COVID-19.
"Actually, the ministry had posted them ….. they choose the hospitals …," Dr. Farid Miah told the FE.
This story was written and produced as part of a media skills development programme delivered by the Thomson Reuters Foundation. The content is the sole responsibility of the author and the publisher.
