Kushtia General Hospital: Patients Suffer Despite Tk 40 Million Oxygen Plant, Crippled by Lack of Minor Parts
A grave healthcare crisis has unfolded at Kushtia 250-Bed General Hospital, where critically ill patients are forced onto ward floors to receive life-saving oxygen. Despite the installation of a central oxygen plant and a liquid oxygen tank costing nearly BDT 40 million during the COVID-19 pandemic, the system has effectively collapsed. The severe disruption stems not from a major technical failure, but from a chronic shortage of inexpensive auxiliary equipment, such as flowmeters and humidifier bottles, alongside several broken wall outlets across multiple hospital wards.
The situation is particularly dire in key units like the Male Surgery Ward and Female Surgery Ward. In the 18-bed Female Surgery Ward, only two functional humidifier bottles remain operational, while the 28-bed Male Surgery Ward relies on just five. Consequently, patients requiring urgent respiratory support must be moved near other beds or placed on mats underneath existing bed setups to share working connections. Furthermore, in ward after ward, vacant beds with central supply ports remain completely unusable due to missing or broken accessories that cost only a few hundred Taka each.
Patients and their families are bearing the brunt of this administrative negligence. Mr. Abbas, a relative of an admitted patient, explained that his critical relative had to lie on a floor mat just to access a functional outlet. Ms. Mukta, a patient admitted for 16 days, shared her ordeal of repeatedly shifting beds or unplugging bottles from other patients whenever oxygen was needed. Another visitor, Mr. Abdur Razzak, noted that even after securing an oxygen-designated bed, no bottle was attached. Doctors warn that even brief disruptions in oxygen supply can prove fatal for high-risk patients.
Healthcare workers face immense daily struggles attempting to manage emergency care under these constrained conditions. Ms. Bilkis Khatun, in charge of Ward No. 6, and Ms. Rabeya, a nurse in Ward No. 10, stated that providing proper care with so few functional devices has become nearly impossible. They noted that staff are regularly forced to seat critically ill patients next to other patients’ beds out of sheer necessity. Ward personnel further alleged that despite technicians inspecting the broken outlets shortly after installation, no effective steps or new supplies have been provided for months.
Despite the life-threatening conditions, hospital leadership has shown an astonishing lack of urgency. When questioned about the severe crisis, Dr. H. M. Anwarul Islam, Superintendent of Kushtia 250-Bed General Hospital, stated that no one had submitted a formal written complaint to him yet. However, he assured that he would look into the matter and take necessary action. As patients continue to fight for breath on floor mats, the authority’s passive posture in the face of a low-cost equipment shortage remains a profound tragedy for the healthcare system.
