Homo Sapiens
ELITE MEMBER
- Joined
- Feb 3, 2015
- Messages
- 9,641
- Reaction score
- -1
- Country
- Location
PM Hasina inaugurates BSMMU Super Specialized Hospital
It will offer certain medical services that are not available at most general hospitals of Bangladesh
Focus Bangla
Tribune Desk
September 14, 2022 11:39 AM
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has inaugurated BSMMU Super Specialized Hospital, the first of its kind in Bangladesh.
The prime minister opened the hospital in Dhaka via videoconferencing from Ganabhaban on Wednesday.
Sheikh Hasina said that on July 31, 1997, through a gazette notification of the health ministry, the government announced the decision to turn the Institute of Postgraduate Medical Research (IPGMR) into Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, adding that her government was the first to establish a medical university in the country.
The Awami League government has been working tirelessly to bring healthcare to the people's doorsteps, she said.
She said the government formulated a public health policy and was implementing it.
The prime minister said the government had increased the number of hospital beds and improved medical services at general and specialized hospitals. “We have also built about 18,000 community clinics and union health centres to provide healthcare to the rural population."
Apart from BSMMU, the prime minister said, the government had established four more medical universities – in Rajshahi, Chittagong, Sylhet and Khulna – to provide quality medical care and conduct health research. Medical universities would be established in each divisional city in phases, she added.
The number of government medical colleges in the country currently stood at 39 and the authorities were in the process of setting up more of them, she said.
Sheikh Hasina said her government had appointed 18,000 doctors and recruited 20,000 nurses in the last 13 and a half years.
She added that doctors and nurses were reluctant to live outside the capital for work. "Everyone wants to live in Dhaka."
The prime minister asked healthcare professionals to devote themselves to the treatment of the common and poor people. “Doctors should stay in villages. They should be good with patients. If you perform your duties properly, the common people will get medical care easily," she added.
According to the BSMMU VC Dr Md Sharfuddin Ahmed, one of the main reasons the hospital has been labelled as super specialized is that it will offer certain medical services that are not available at most general hospitals of the country, such as bone marrow and gene transplants.
Nano technology-based medical services and robot-assisted surgery would also be introduced at the super specialized hospital in the near future, he told Dhaka Tribune in August.
Not only will the new hospital provide these rare medical facilities, but it will also be optimized for the convenience of patients.
“Radio scans, CT scans and MRI facilities will be provided from one centre at this hospital. In comparison, one has to travel almost a mile to avail oneself of all these facilities at Dhaka Medical College Hospital,” Dr Sharfuddin said.
A state-of-the-art Hospital Information System (HIS) will include a Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) and Order Communication System for the management of patients, allowing for advanced electronic medical reports and integrated appointment management through an app.
“At present, most critical patients of our country go to India, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, or Europe as these countries have a reputation for high-quality treatment facilities. The super specialized hospital will provide international standard facilities to these patients right here at home,” the BSMMU VC added.
“Around 700,000 Bangladeshi people go abroad for medical care each year and spend $3.5 billion,” said public health expert Dr Tarek Hossain, who has worked with Unicef and the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
“Bangladeshi medical tourists go to India in the largest numbers – an estimated 425,000 patients each year. According to Bangladesh Bank, Bangladeshis abroad spent $2.2 million in the 2018-19 fiscal year, $1.6 million in FY2019-20 and $1.6 million in FY2020-21,” added Dr Tarek.
Cutting-edge facilities
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina laid the foundation stone of the hospital at BSMMU on September 13, 2018.The nine-storey, 750-bed hospital was funded with low-interest loans from the Economic and Development Corporation Fund (EDCF) of Korea. The total cost was Tk 1,100 crore.
The loans are to be repaid in 40 years, with a grace period of 15 years.
The structure of the hospital was constructed by Hyundai Development Company and the medical equipment supplied by Samsung C&T Corporation. The hospital was designed and its construction supervised by Sunjin Engineering and Architects.
The hospital will include five specialized centres: a Cardio and Cerebrovascular Centre, Hepatobiliary and Liver Transplant Centre, Mother and Child Health Care Centre, Kidney Disease Centre, and Accident and Emergency Centre.
There are provisions for VVIP/VIP cabins, isolated cabins, wards, a surgical intensive care unit (SICU), medical intensive care unit (MICU), coronary care unit (CCU), neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and paediatric intensive care unit (PICU), among others.
The 100-bed ICU unit will include 25 beds dedicated for surgical patients, 25 beds for medical patients, 25 beds for cardiac patients, 15 beds for neonatal and 10 beds for paediatric patients.
The hospital also has 10 modular operation theatres, where critical operations can be performed with modern tools and equipment.
Foreign and local specialized doctors and academics will attend the hospital for special medical consultancy and surgical operations. For smoother operations and management of the hospital, local physicians, doctors, medical staff and administrative personnel were trained up by experts from Korea.
A total of 56 health specialists from Korea will work in the hospital for two years from its opening.
PM Hasina inaugurates BSMMU Super Specialized Hospital
It will offer certain medical services that are not available at most general hospitals of Bangladesh
