Dhaka Medical College Hospital Launched Ambulance Service After 30 years.

DMCH Launched Ambulance Service After 30 years.

After long 30 years, Dhaka Medical College Hospital has introduced ambulance service recently to alleviate sufferings of its patients.

Some four ambulances have been put into service within Dhaka metropolitan city to bring in the patients and take them home.

The minimum rent for a trip was fixed at Tk 300, said the hospital authorities adding two new and two old ambulances started working last Thursday. Some eight drivers will work for the service in three shifts.

Most of the patients of the hospital usually have to depend on some microbuses, which lack patient-friendly features and without oxygen support system.

Under private ownership, about 60 such microbuses are used as ambulances, which can be hired at a high rent from the hospital premises.

The owners of those vehicles fight a battle to capture the patients. Every owner appoints at least four brokers who try to persuade patients to rent their microbuses.

Mohammad Nasiruddin, in-charge of the hospital’s transport section, told The Daily Star that he had been working in the section for the last 30 years. Earlier, two ambulances used to serve the hospital but they were moved to fire service department during the rule of Ziaur Rahman.

“Now we have got a real job to do,” he said adding they now take the patients to their homes but not the dead bodies.

“No directors in the past took the initiative to make the ambulance service effective,” DMCH Director Brig Gen Shahidul Haque Mallik told The Daily Star.

“Still, only four ambulances are not enough for a hospital where on an average 2400 patients receive treatment every day. We need at least 10 ambulance to offer our patients satisfactory service,” he said.

Asked about the private “ambulances” gathered on the hospital premises, the director said there should not be any private ambulance here. But as situation demands, the authorities cannot take steps against them.

The public ambulances are yet to provide service outside the city. So some patients will need those private ambulances, he said.

The ambulance service situation in other public hospitals of the capital is also quite unpleasant.

The Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU), National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases, Suhrawardi Hospital and National Institute of Diseases of Chest and Hospital have only an ambulance each to move emergency patients or bring in the referred ones.

BSMMU Vice Chancellor Prof Pran Gopal Dutta said they were trying to have at least two ambulances — one for general and another for cardiac department.

The Mitford Hospital has three ambulances to serve 800 patients on an average, said Director of the hospital Khademul Ehsan Iqbal.