Patient's death inside lift: DGHS issues five-point directive for healthcare facilities
The DGHS took the decision to issue the directives at an emergency virtual meeting with the participation of the heads of all government healthcare institutions across the country regarding the overall management of the hospital including emergency services, lifts and service management.
The Directorate General of Health Services today (13 May) issued a five-point directive for all healthcare facilities across the country following the death of a heart patient inside a lift of Shaheed Tajuddin Medical College in Gazipur yesterday.
The directives include ensuring uninterrupted power supply in all healthcare facilities, inspecting all mechanical machinery of all facilities, checking the presence of lift operators and reassessing their qualification, inspecting lift's safety system, and sending a letter to the Power Board of Bangladesh to inspect all lifts of all healthcare facilities.
The DGHS took the decision to issue the directives at an emergency virtual meeting with the participation of the heads of all government healthcare institutions across the country regarding the overall management of the hospital including emergency services, lifts and service management.
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On Sunday (12 May), Momtaz Begum, a heart patient, died after getting stuck in a lift of Shaheed Tajuddin Ahmed Medical College Hospital for about 45 minutes reportedly.
Momtaz, 53, wife of Sharfuddin of Raniganj Barigaon village in Kapasia upazila of Gazipur.
In a letter sent to the DGHS on Sunday afternoon, the hospital authorities said she died during a chaos inside a lift during a power outage, which damaged the safety system and delayed the rescue operation.
The hospital also claimed that the lift was stuck for a maximum of 10-15 minutes, not the reported 45 minutes.
According to the letter, the lift got trapped between the 9th and 10th floor initially due to a power outage. Although the Automated Rescue Device (ARD) typically activates within a minute in such situations, panicked occupants, accompanying the patient, exacerbated the situation inside, causing the door safety system to malfunction.
After manual intervention by the lift operator, the elevator was brought to a floor and people including the patient were able to come out of it.
The entire process reportedly took 10-15 minutes, said the letter signed by the hospital director (acting) Md Jahangir Alam and PWD E/M Division-10 Engineer Md Abdul Halim.
Momtaz, who got stuck inside the lift, was rushed to the emergency department but was declared dead upon arrival.
