To provide emergency treatment service to road accident victims, Ilyas Ahmed Choudhary Trauma Center has been set up at Dattapara, Shibchar, Madaripur at a cost of 120 crores.
Health Minister Zahid Malek inaugurated the health facility next to the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Expressway in November last year, but treatment service is yet to start.
A horrific bus accident took place in Shibchar on Sunday, in which 19 people died and 25 were injured. The victims were taken to a private hospital and various sub-district health complexes instead of the nearby government trauma centre.
The Directorate General of Health Services has set up a total of 21 trauma centers across the country. The government took the initiative to set up 10 trauma centers in the financial year 2004-05 and the remaining 11 in the financial year 2010-11.
But, 16 of them are currently lying closed while two are running only external services and two others are under construction. Another trauma center is being used as the orthopedics department of the district hospital.
The aim of the trauma center was to provide quick treatment to the victims of road accident and save lives. It was proposed to recruit 34 officers including 14 physicians, 10 nurses and pharmacists for each trauma facility.
But the authorities did not recruit manpower as proposed and in most cases provided medical equipment to the medical facilities.