Dirt, untidiness all over Dinajpur medical
A scene from a ward of now awfully dirty Dinajpur Medical College Hospital exposes authorities' utter callousness about maintaining hygiene at the district's premier treatment centre. Photo: STAR
Unclean wards, stinking toilets, corridors with littered wastes, medical wastes and stagnated drain water on the premises are now some of the features of Dinajpur Medical College and Hospital, thanks to the indifference of the authorities. The hygiene condition of the hospital is far from satisfactory, even at the Operation Theatre (OT), said several patients. During a recent visit to the hospital, this correspondent saw awful condition at the hospital that has become a nuisance for patients, staff as well as visitors. "Condition of the toilets is so bad that foul smell spreads to wards and corridors, much to the inconvenience of staff, patients and their attendants,'' said a doctor seeking anonymity. "Often I have to hold breath to avoid nausea," said an attendant. The toilets in most of the departments, particularly in paediatric, emergency, medicine and diarrhoea wards and OT are in pathetic conditions. Clogged sewerage and drains make the environment horrible as overflowing of sewerage water that stagnates on the hospital compound spreads out foul smell. A few medical officers, who have to visit the hospital wards regularly, said they are exposed to infections due to poor hygienic conditions. Spit, a major source of infection, can be seen on the corridors, ramps and staircases while the corridors are littered with waste materials like empty water bottles, waste paper. Even bio-medical wastes can be seen in and around the hospital building as they are not properly disposed off. The situation is not much better in the paying wards on the first and second floors as cockroaches, rats, even cats and dogs can be seen sometime, said Susmita Karmaker, a patient at the medicine ward of the hospital. Poor patients, who cannot afford treatment in private hospitals, are the worst sufferers due to the unhygienic conditions in the hospital, said a doctor of diarrhoea ward. This perennial problem of toilets and sewerage can be solved only if the entire system is overhauled but the authorities are turning a blind eye in this regard, said a hospital official. When contacted a couple of days ago, acting director of Dinajpur Medical College Hospital, also civil surgeon of Dinajpur Sadar Hospital, said he is unaware about the unhygienic condition of the hospital. He said he would make a visit to see the conditions of toilets soon.
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