FROM PAGE 12
bid to curb irregularities.
ANOMALIES EVERYWHERE
A team from DGHS, along with a mobile court of the Dhaka District Administration, yesterday resumed drives in the Chankharpool area, where Health Minister Sardar Md Sakhawat Husain visited several medical facilities on Tuesday night.
One of the facilities inspected was Prime TG Diagnostic and Consultation Centre, located on the first floor of a small building with a very narrow passage.
The centre had obtained permission as a Category-C facility, which allows only basic tests.
However, the team found evidence that it was conducting tests that should be carried out at Category-B centres by qualified pathologists and radiologists.
The facility had also launched Prime TG Blood Bank and Consultation Centre about eight months ago without approval, although setting up a blood bank requires separate authorisation.
Mamun Khan, a marketing promotion officer of the blood bank, said they collect blood from one to two donors daily.
In response to a query, he said they had filed an application seeking approval, but DGHS officials said they found no such application.
In this context, the mobile court, led by Executive Magistrate Shahriar Ashraf, sealed the blood bank and fined the diagnostic centre Tk 60,000.
Authentic Diagnostic and Consultation was established in 2018. In 2024, the authorities took steps to set up a 50-bed Authentic Hospital in the same building.
The team found that the licences of both facilities had expired in June last year. The hospital also does not have an emergency department.
Although a 50-bed hospital is required to have at least 15 doctors and 30 nurses, the team found only one doctor on duty at the time of the drive.
The hospital authorities had submitted a list of 20 doctors while obtaining approval, but the doctor present during the inspection could not recognise any of them.
Mizanur Rahman, chief executive officer of the hospital, said they had applied for licence renewal but failed to provide any evidence to support the claim.
More than 10 doctors work at the hospital, but they usually arrive after 2:00pm as they are engaged at other facilities he said adding that although the hospital received approval for 50 beds, only a small number of patients are admitted.
Patients are aware the hospital does not have an emergency department and that operations are conducted after 2:00pm, he said.
In this context, DGHS decided to suspend the hospital’s operations until further notice and asked the authorities to appear before it within 15 working days with the necessary documents.
Advance Health Aid Diagnostic Centre is located beside the Authentic Hospital.
The team found no pathologist or radiologist present at the facility, which was crowded with patients.
Family members of Md Hanif, 72, who suffered a brain stroke and was admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital, brought him to the diagnostic centre.
He had been waiting in a wheelchair for more than an hour, but the authorities said the specialist who would perform the echocardiogram would arrive after 2:30pm.
“A man from Dhaka Medical College Hospital took us here, saying the facility was good and tests could be done quickly. But we have been waiting for a long time with this critical patient,” said Hanif’s son-in-law Md Ripon.
The team also found that the facility was using a reagent that expired in February. Several test reports lacked the signature of the assigned doctor.
In this context, the mobile court fined the facility Tk 1 lakh, while DGHS decided to shut it down until further notice.
The team also shut down Ahmed Specialised Hospital until further notice for not having an emergency department, employing a foreign doctor without permission, maintaining unhygienic conditions and posing serious safety risks by keeping oxygen cylinders and a generator in the same room.
The team also decided to close Active Blood Bank, Transfusion and Diagnostic Centre, Pure Scientific Diagnostic Centre and Dhaka Diagnostic and Consultation Centre until further notice after detecting similar irregularities in the facilities.
Creative Blood Bank was issued a show notice for operating without valid licence.