As many as 114 doctors from Chattogram Medical College Hospital have been transferred to other hospitals across the country amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
The Ministry of Health issued orders on Sunday and Monday to transfer over a thousand doctors to different hospitals across the country in an effort to cope with the pandemic.
They have been posted to COVID units ‘to help combat the COVID-19 pandemic and ensure public service until further notice’, according to the order.
The transferred doctors have been asked to take up their new posts by Wednesday and perform their duties, reports bdnews24.com.
“The transfer of 114 doctors, including those who work at our COVID unit, may hamper the hospital’s services to some extent,” said CMCH Director Brig Gen SM Humayun Kabir.
Doctors have been dispatched across the country, but CMCH has not received any replacement for those being sent away from the hospital, he said.
“I spoke to the [health] secretary on the transfer issue.”
The COVID ward in CMCH has 300 beds, including a red and a yellow zone. On average, the hospital, which has a capacity of 1,313 beds, admits some 2,500 patients a day.
The government transferred the CMCH doctors to BITID Hospital, Chattogram General Hospital, and hospitals in Khagrachhari, Feni and other upazilas.
CMCH has patients suffering from diseases other than COVID-19, and it may hamstring the services when doctors are transferred from there, said Dr AMM Minhazur Rahman, organising secretary of Swadhinata Chikitsak Parishad.
It will be tough for transferred doctors to join their new stations soon because of the ongoing lockdown imposed to curb the spread of the coronavirus, he added.
