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CMCH dental unit in a shambles

Arun Bikash Dey and Tarek Mahmud, ctg
With a lack of equipment, teachers and a building, Chittagong Medical College Hospital's (CMCH) Dental Unit is failing to serve and live up to expectations.
Dental students and internees claimed the unit's five departments—paediatric dentistry, conservative dentistry, oral and maxillofacial surgery, prosthodontics and orthodontics—are overwhelmed with shortages.
The first to be pointed out is the absence of an X-ray machine. Up to 200 patients who require this service every day have to opt for private diagnostic centres.
Some students, seeking anonymity, alleged that some teachers who have such diagnostic centres adjacent to CMCH were not interested in properly equipping the unit.
Prof Morshed Mawla, the unit's head, however, said, “There is an X-ray machine but no technician to operate it."
The equipment at present is sufficient in the context of a public hospital, he said.
The students donotthinkso. They say the lack of equipment was badly affecting their practical lessons.
Most of the dentists' chairs have become dilapidated, pointed out one internee, Iqbal Hossain Aman.
Against a requirement of at least 20 dentists' chairs, each department has around five. "This causes patients to wait long hours in queues
every day to avail treatment,” said Abdullah al Faruque, another internee doctor.
He added that there was a shortage of autoclaves, the most effective machine for sterilisation.
“Currently equipment are sterilised by boiling and using chemical agents. Even then, some of the boiling equipment are out of order,” Abdullah said.
Prof Morshed said there were autoclaves in every department.
The students pointed out the absence of an operation theatre and inpatient services. Urgent operations were done in the ear, nose and throat (ENT) department once a week while patients with critical conditions had to take admission in the ENT ward.
There is a single medical assistant against 20 required to deliver proper treatment, they added.
Admitting the fact, Prof Morshed said, “The dental unit should be built up as a hospital with facilities for inpatients and outpatients and with sufficient staff, doctors and teachers.”
The around 300 students are now having to do with 24 teachers—an assistant professor, two dental sur-geons and 21 on deputa-tion—against a requirement of 160 teachers, he said.
Prof Morshed said proposals he sent over the creation of new posts to the health ministry through the CMC principal was now under consideration of the public administration ministry.
The problems do not end there.
Students recently had to shift their academic activities to their old two-storied building, declared uninhabitable, as the present two-storied building, inaugurated on April 29, 2006, developed severe cracks.
“We found cracks in the walls since its inception in 2006 ,” said Shahnaz Mehrin Chowdhury, an internee doctor.
Prof Morshed said the construction specialists could comment better on what happened. “We are looking into the matter.”
CMC Principal Prof Dr Selim Muhammad Jahangir said there was a shortage of teachers in dental courses throughout the country.
Despite this, the government provided teachers from different institutions on deputation, he said, adding, “Now we are taking initiatives for introducing post graduate courses."
CMCH Director Brig Gen Khondakar Shahidul Ghani admitted that there was a shortage of staff and equipment at all hospitals around the country.
“CMCH is equipped with staff and equipment for 550 people but in reality the number of patients coming here is three times as many."
A total of 1,908 patients were admitted to the hospital on February 19, he said, adding, “We are trying to get funds from the government, donors and philanthropists.”
“Introducing facilities for inpatients for the dental unit is under our active consideration. The unit should have a separate identity,” he said.