Majority of the seats at the lone state-run cancer hospital are pay beds that cause financial hardship to the patients as they have to bear costs of prolonged treatment for survival from the deadly disease, sources said.
The National Institute of Cancer Research and Hospital (NICRH) has currently got some 60 per cent pay beds where the cancer patients have to stay for a long time due to nature of the treatment of the disease.
Cancer patients cannot be treated like other patients as its treatment is lengthy and expensive. As the facility of cancer treatment has yet to be decentralized, many patients have to come from different cities and district towns to the hospital, cancer specialists said.
Talking to the FE, a cancer patient from Dinajpur said he had been staying at the hospital for three weeks with a close relative for his treatment purpose.
"I don't have any near ones in the capital to stay here. It is troublesome to bear the treatment cost. Moreover, it would be a great relief for us if the government made the beds free for patients," he said.
Dr Moarrof Hossain, a noted oncologist and director of the NICRH, said the institute has decided to propose that the government allocate at least 70 per cent non-paying bed for the sake of cancer patients who usually come for treatment from distant and remote places of the country.
"Although treatment cost of cancer patients is subsidized, but we are getting an insignificant amount of allocation," he said.
The NICHR has been upgraded to 300 beds recently from 150 beds. There were some 50 beds once and the institute is getting fund allocation on that basis, he pointed out.
There are some 23 departments of the hospital for specialized pediatrics, women and other divisions. It provides food to the patients for free four times a day.
Per-bed cost comes to some Tk 150 per day which is nominal compared with other private hospitals. But poor patients have been found struggling to afford the expenditure with all other relevant costs, said Dr Hossain.
The institute will write to the health ministry to increase allocation for the hospital and allow major portion as free beds at the hospital, he said.
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Crippling problem for poor
Doulot Akter Mala | Published: May 17, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00
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