Kids with seasonal diseases crowd Dinajpur hospitals

A large number of children in Dinajpur, especially from low income families, are becoming infected with diseases like pneumonia, influenza, fever and diarrhoea that are commonly associated with a change of seasons.

Dr Wadud, a paediatrician at Dinajpur General Hospital, said the number of diarrhoea and pneumonia patients is not alarming, but hospitals in the district town and other upazilas are witnessing a rush of patients suffering from flu and high fever.

During a visit to different hospitals in Dinajpur town, including Dinajpur Medical College Hospital, Dinajpur General Hospital and Orobindhu Shishu Hospital, this correspondent found a large number of parents with children aged between one-month and 7 years coming to the outpatient department everyday to get treatment for their children.

Many children are taken to the private chambers of doctors. A similar situation prevails in other upazilas in the district.

On Saturday, this correspondent visited Dinajpur General Hospital and found several hundred parents with their children lined up from 8:00am to see the on-duty doctor, who came to the hospital at around 10:20am, nearly one hour late.

"I have been waiting in the queue with my granddaughter for two hours to see the doctor, but he has not yet come," Rokhsana Begum said.

After waiting for three hours, Anwara and her daughter got a chance to consult the doctor. When she went with the prescription to the hospital dispensary, she was told that the prescribed medicines were unavailable and she would have to buy them elsewhere.

Mostly poor people visit the outpatient department of the general hospital, but they are forced to buy expensive medicines from private pharmacies, said a staff seeking anonymity.

Outside the hospital gate, medical representatives of different pharmaceutical companies were seen checking the prescriptions. Many of them were taking pictures of the prescriptions.

The situation was similar when this correspondent visited the hospital again on Sunday and Monday.

Dr Amalendu Biswas, civil surgeon of Dinajpur General Hospital, said there are allegations that doctors are not coming to the hospital on time and that he would look into it. His office would also take steps to stop the nuisance created by the medical representatives at the gate, he added.