Dhaka Shishu (Children's) Hospital has set up a modern and well equipped stem cell therapy unit aiming to treat autism, cerebral palsy and other surgery related diseases.
The project has been implemented jointly by Department of Social Services and Dhaka Shishu Hospital.
Social welfare ministry forwarded a development project proposal (DPP) on 'Advanced Child Surgery and Stem Cell Therapy Unit Set Up at Dhaka Shishu Hospital' in July 2018.
Project Director Helal Uddin Bhuiyan said the Tk 245 million project started in July 2018 and will be ended in December 2020.
Of the total cost of the project, Tk 147 million was provided by the social welfare ministry. The equipment cost was Tk 132 million and training cost was Tk 1.5 million. The rest of the money has been given back.
The allocation for foreign training could not be spent with which 80 doctors were supposed to go for training. There was no response from various countries including India for providing training. But three doctors were trained outside the country for learning use of the equipment.
The fund that was provided by the hospital-Tk 98 million-could not be spent till now.
Under the same project, modern modular operation theatre, surgical ICU ward, surgical HDU ward, post operative ward and specialised modern surgical ward of 32 beds have been completed. These are already opened for the treatment of the children.
Director of Dhaka Shishu Hospital Professor Dr Shafi Ahmed said that although the project has been completed, the ministry is yet to hand it over to the hospital management. It will take time to start treatment, because the physicians could not receive training on stem cell therapy during the Covid-19 pandemic.
