Tk 506cr new unit remains idle for lack of manpower at Neurosciences Hospital

Parvin Begum came to the National Institute of Neurosciences and Hospital (NINS) along with one of her ailing relatives who needed treatment there. However, she suddenly felt dizzy, collapsed and became critically ill.

Her son Tanzir stood in the queue for nearly an hour before managing to have his mother seen by an outdoor doctor.

The doctor advised them to take her to another hospital as there were no vacant beds available. In fact, many patients who had arrived before them could not be admitted either, he was told, as the 500-bed public hospital is struggling to cope with the growing number of patients.

And yet, a new 500-bed unit of the hospital has remained unutilised for over four months since its inauguration on December 8 last year due to a lack of necessary manpower and budgetary allocation.

Prof Sayedur Rahman, special assistant to the then chief adviser at the health ministry, inaugurated the unit, which was built at a cost of Tk 506 crore between January 2018 and December 2024, without ensuring the required manpower and budgetary allocation.

Doctors and staffers said that all furniture and medical equipment have already been supplied to the hospital, but only a few tests -- CT scan, MRI and X-ray -- are currently being conducted on basement level 2 of the building.

All other floors and equipment remain unused.

During a visit to the new 15-storey building (including three basement floors) yesterday, this correspondent found some chairs and other furniture gathering dust on the first and second floors.

All rooms were ready, with the necessary signs already installed for different units. The toilets also had a functioning water supply.

Since its inception in September 2012, NINS, the country’s only government-run tertiary care neuroscience centre, has seen a steady and significant rise in the number of patients.

In the first nine months of last year, a total of 5.6 lakh patients received outpatient services, meaning around 2,050 people sought such care daily, according to hospital data.

Some 46,729 patients received emergency services in the first nine months, while 14,019 patients were admitted, the data shows.

The number of outpatients stood at 6.01 lakh in 2024, compared with 3.6 lakh in 2023.

The hospital carried out a total of 3,047 major and 1,267 minor surgeries in the first nine months of last year, according to data. The numbers stood at 4,178 and 3,094 respectively in 2024, the data shows.

The hospital’s bed occupancy rate has consistently remained at 100 percent.

“Patients come from across the country. In many cases, we cannot admit even urgent patients due to a shortage of beds. As a doctor, it is painful, but we have little option,” an associate professor of the hospital told this correspondent yesterday.

In the last few months, they have raised demands in different forums for appointing doctors and other staff to make the new unit functional but to no avail, he said.

A medical technologist at the hospital said they have been carrying out a few tests in the new building (basement level-2) for the past three to four months so that the newly procured equipment does not become non-functional.

“No new manpower was appointed -- we were recruited for the main unit and are now working here,” he said, also requesting anonymity.

This correspondent visited the hospital on March 16 to speak with its Director Kazi Gias Uddin Ahmed to know why the new unit could not be made functional.

His office referred this correspondent to Joint Director Badrul Alam Mondal, who declined to comment citing busyness.

When this correspondent went to their office yesterday, they were attending a discussion at the hospital marking World Parkinson’s Day. They also did not respond to phone calls.

Health Secretary Md Quamruzzaman Chowdhury also took part in the programme, where several speakers, including Harun Al Rashid, president of Doctors Associations of Bangladesh (DAB), a pro-BNP doctors’ organisation, demanded that the new unit of the hospital be made functional soon.

After the programme, the secretary, along with the top officials of the hospitals, inspected the new unit.

Contacted, Quamruzzaman said they were working to open the new unit within one month.

“Everything is ready -- only the shortage is manpower. We have given administrative approval to hire staff under outsourcing, while we will also start posting doctors and other manpower soon,” he told The Daily Star last night.