The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) is yet to start operations of any field hospital even after three months of taking the initiative to reduce pressure on the Covid-dedicated facilities.
Under such circumstances, the government has instructed the authorities concerned to urgently set up the makeshift hospitals across the country.
The latest directive came amid rising trend of coronavirus infections that put extreme pressure on the existing healthcare centres, officials said.
They said that the government wanted to avert any unpleasant situation over treatment of Covid-19 patients. The government also suggested encouraging the private sector to go for such programmes.
Seeking anonymity, an official at the Ministry of Health told the FE that the government is concerned over the growing number of infections and deaths in the recent weeks.
"If the untoward trend continues for two more weeks, it will be difficult to tackle the emerging situation with the existing healthcare arrangements. That's why the government instructed the health directorate to build such hospitals as quickly as possible," he said.
The official was, however, critical about the progress of the field hospital initiative by the DGHS, saying that the directorate has not completed any field hospital yet although it was planned at the beginning of the second wave in April last.
"We need to complete it quickly as the existing Covid-dedicated hospitals have been battling hard to tackle the pressure of incoming patients," he added.
According to the latest statistics available with the DGHS, there are a total of 15,532 hospital beds for Covid patients, but around 70 per cent or 10,466 beds were occupied by the patients as of July 18.
The situation is too bad for ICU spaces as 80 per cent or 1,032 out of 1,291 ICU facilities were busy treating serious patients to date.
When contacted, DGHS director (hospital) Dr Farid Hossain Miah said they were giving utmost priority to build the makeshift hospitals all over the country.
He said the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) convention centre has been selected for the purpose as its proximity to BSMMU would ensure getting specialist doctors readily available.
"We're working on it," he said, adding that they have also asked the local administration of each district to find suitable places for making such facilities," he said.
Mr Farid said that using private facilities to set up the field hospitals has many advantages - such hospitals can be set up in a quicker time, among others.
DGHS Director General Dr ABM Khurshid Alam said they have been trying to manage the situation within the existing hospital beds and ICU facilities.
"Building field hospital is an easy thing, but it involves many things like doctors, nurses, oxygen and other facilities. So it takes time. It is one of our priorities now," he added.
About the growing fatality rate, the DGHS boss said that inadequate treatment facilities were not the main reason behind the increase in the number of deaths from Covid-19.
"People are being admitted to hospitals very late because they are assuming that they have a normal cold or fever. The truth is that people who are being admitted to ICUs have slim chances of recovery," he added.
Healthcare professionals criticized the DGHS's slow progress in making the field hospitals, which could have lessened the growing pressure on the existing arrangements.
