Immediate care needed for understaffed Tangail General Hospital

Patients at Tangail’s 250-bed General Hospital have been struggling to receive adequate healthcare services due to an overwhelming number of patients and a shortage of staff, including doctors. The hospital has been unable to provide necessary care to patients, particularly the poor who come from rural areas, forcing them to seek treatment at private clinics and hospitals, spending a lot more than their budget. The hospital authorities sent letters to the health department with requests for additional staff, but the problem has not been taken care of.
Reportedly, a total of 14 doctor positions and 73 other posts have remained vacant for an extended period. The lack of adequate staff has overwhelmed the existing workforce, making it difficult to provide timely care to patients. The hospital’s indoor facilities are housing twice the number of patients it can handle. This has left them without the necessary beds and proper care. Patients have alleged that nurses and staff are slow to respond to their needs, causing additional distress and pain.
Those who can afford are left with no choice but avail services at private clinics and hospitals. The worst sufferers are the poor patients who are referred from upazila hospitals for more serious conditions. The hospital is struggling to provide good services to patients with the existing staff as 3,000 to 4,000 patients seek treatment at the hospital’s outdoor facilities every day. The hospital has requested the appointment of necessary staffers, including doctors, to fill the vacant positions and alleviate the strain on existing staff.
The healthcare system in general is not in good condition, whether it is in the urban posh government medical university hospitals or rural upazila health complexes as over the years the government invested in infrastructure, but not in service delivery. Basic administrative systems, such as accountability, line management, monitoring, award and punishment based on performance and other principles have shattered under the regime. The ministry of health is well advised to take the necessities of staffing, training, service improvement and governance at public hospitals seriously to reach people with proper healthcare support.