Keeping public hospitals neat and clean

Patients have to receive treatment in an unhygienic environment at almost every public hospital in Bangladesh. Beds in the hospital are in a horrible state, infested with bed bugs and cockroaches with dirty bed-sheets. The condition of the washrooms is pathetic. Only a few days ago, I went to a cardiac ward at Dhaka Medical College Hospital to visit an old patient. He is accustomed to using a commode at his home but there was none in that ward. When I went to find one for him, all the toilets looked so dirty that I almost could not enter there as they stink. If the situation in a major hospital like the DMCH is such, what is it like in other smaller hospitals?

There was also a shortage of beds and many patients had to lie on the floor. All the wards are overcrowded with patients. I urge the authorities concerned to make public hospitals clean and set up more beds to accommodate the growing number of patients.

Fariha Tabassum Piya,

Student of Department of Management,

University of Dhaka, Dhaka,

[email protected]