CMCH cancer ward: Born 4 decades ago, still limps

The Radiotherapy Department of Chittagong Medical College Hospital. PHOTO: STAR

The Radiotherapy Department with only 20 beds renders services to around 50,000 patients a year.

The department, the lone of its kind in Chittagong division, that started its journey in 1965 with 12 beds in CMCH had to wait for long 20 years to add eight other beds.

The poor patients, who are lucky enough to get a bed, also face difficulties during treatment as the hospital can hardly supply essential and costly medicine. Besides, they can not afford to buy those from outside.

The relatives of one Md Gias Uddin, a farmer from Boalkhali, said Gias manages a bed for admission at the ward after an effort of five days. He has already spent Tk 25,000 for radiotherapy, medicine and other services, they added.

"I don't know how I would manage rest of the money to continue my husband's treatment," said Fatema, wife of Gias. All the medicines required for the treatment have to be bought from outside the hospital and we can hardly afford them, she said.

Abdur Razzaq, a match factory worker from Comilla at the cancer ward with tumour in his neck, said he spent Tk 70,000 for radiotherapy in seven days.

For radiotherapy the patients are to depend mainly on the 35-year old Deep X-ray Machine, which provides services to those requiring palliative and temporary treatment, sources said.

A Cobalt Machine, used in curative treatment, was installed in 1998 and had to wait for another four years for making it operational in 2002.

Prof Farid Ahmad Chowdhury, head of the department, said a Deep X-ray machine helps treatment of 10 per cent of cancer disease while a Cobalt Machine does 90 per cent.

The department lacks modern equipment like Linear Accelerator that is used in modern treatment for cancer diseases, he said. A Linear Accelerator helps modern and sophisticated treatment of cancer in abdominal organs, lung, brain or deep-seated tumour, said Prof Farid. A linear accelerator is being installed at the National Cancer Institute in Dhaka, he added.

Prof Farid said with the existing equipment they can give treatment and conduct surgery of trachea cancer, vocal cord cancer and throat cancer in the department. But in absence of modern equipment, surgery of lung cancer is not possible here, he said.

Only four medical technologists give radiotherapy to around 70 patients at the department everyday, sources said.

Besides, there is no medical physicist at the department for chemotherapy that forces the patients to depend on the medical technologists for the service, they added.

Two posts, out of eight, for doctors have been lying vacant for years at the department.

We had already proposed to create more posts for doctors, medical technologists and medical physicists to keep pace with the increasing pressure of patients at the department, said Prof Farid.

He said the monthly turn-up of patients for radiology therapy at the hospital stood at 2500 in 2005 when it was 1,250 in 1995 and 781 in 1985.