Cox’sBazartimesnews : Having provided medical care to over 100,000 patients across Cox’s Bazar, including host communities and displaced population from Rakhine in the past year since inauguration, the renovated emergency department of Cox’s Bazar Sadar Hospital marks its first anniversary today. Healthcare staffcontinue to provide emergency care to the patients across the district arriving in the ED of the district’s main government medical facility thatcovers three and half million people. 

Since July 2019, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), in close partnership with the Sadar Hospital Management,has been working to strengthen the delivery of Emergency health care services and the administrative capacity of the ED, especially now in the time of COVID-19. Health staff in the ED are trained in emergency care skills; essential medication and equipment are available; and this ensures that the ED is appropriately equipped and designed to cater for the needs of the attending patients. The ED has catered for almost two thousand critical patients with a survival rate of 98%. By introducing one attendant per patient in the ED, overcrowding was completely reduced. Additionally, the unnecessary admission of patients in the hospital was also reduced by 65%, effectively helping to markedly reduce the overcrowding of patients in the hospital wards.

Explaining the importance of the ED in the busiest hospital facility of the district, Farrukh Islomov,Head of sub delegation of the ICRC in Cox’s Bazar says: “A year after it was opened, the ED provided emergency care to over 100,000 patients across Cox’s Bazar, including host communities and displaced population from Rakhine. In an effort to improve the delivery of health services, a triage system is put in place to ensure that patients needing urgent medical attention are provided with emergency care first – to alleviate suffering and save the life of the patient.” 

With the increasing threat of COVID-19 in the country, the ED continues to provide emergency care to patientswhile ensuring preventive measures are respected like physical distancing, temperature checks, and with installation of handwashing facilities; in addition to constant disinfection of all surfaces. Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) has been provided to all ED staff to safeguard the health of the staff while serving the patients.

Appreciating the ICRC support, Dr. ShaheenAbdur Rahman,Head of the Emergency Department at Cox’s Bazar District Sadar Hospital, says, “Earlier, 100 to 150 people used to come for medical services in ED, but following the crucial renovation, we are receiving 350 to 400 people patients each day. People’s trust on this department increased in a year and now it is a model emergency department for all other government hospitals in Bangladesh.”

Currently, the opening of a dedicated ED for COVID-19 suspected cases to ensure treatment of patients with flu-like symptoms is underway.Hence, the ICRC continues to train the nurses and doctors in providing emergency care in the new ED, while providing medical equipment and medicine worth around BDT 80 million.Also, an agreement with the hospital authority has been signed by the ICRC to provide a refrigerated container to temporarily store dead bodies at CXB Sadar Hospital until their families take them for a dignified burial. Further works are ongoing to develop emergency medicine training programs for emergency doctors and nurses working in the ED and for making the Emergency Department as a “Center for Excellence in Emergency Medicine” in Bangladesh in next three years.

Besides, the ICRC has been extending support to government health complexes inUkhiya and Teknaf together with the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society (BDRCS)to help them provide improved health care to the communities since 2014. Also, host and displaced communities received primary health care services through mobile medical team since the onset of the Rakhine Crisis in 2017.