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Bidduth Barua receives ‘Chikitsha Ratna’ award in India


Published : 27 Feb 2021 09:08 PM | Updated : 27 Feb 2021 11:52 PM

The founder of Chattogram Field Hospital – the first field hospital during the Covid-19 pandemic - has received the ‘Chikitsha Ratna’ award from India.

Chief Minister of Tripura Biplob Kumar Deb handed over the award to Dr Bidduth Barua at a ceremony in Agartala on Saturday.

TV channel ‘Headlines Tripura’ organised the programme where eminent physicians of India received the award for their contribution during the pandemic.

The Chattogram Field Hospital is a story of courage, bravery and compassionate care in Bangladesh during the pandemic.

Dr. Bidduth Barua, a young public health expert, set up the 50-bed facility in the southeastern port city of Bangladesh in April 2020 when people with coronavirus symptoms were denied access to healthcare in many places.

His initiative provided much-needed courage to all after the detection of firstCovid-19 cases on March 8 in Bangladesh. 

Following media reports of fear, hatred and inhumanity in dealing with Covid-19 patients, Dr. Bidduth Barua in a Facebook post said – ‘I want to live with coronavirus patients and give them compassionate care’.

Following the post, industrial conglomerate Navana Group came forward and gave him a 16,000 square feet parking space of the company in Faujdarhat, Chattogram, which was close to the government’s coronavirus testing laboratory – Bangladesh Institute of Tropical and Infectious Diseases (BITID).

Dr Bidduth Barua did not have money to erect the facility there.

Again, he took Facebook and sought public support to make it a hospital for all.

He sought Tk100 donations from 100,000 people, through a Facebook page after the name of the hospital, to make it a facility owned by all.

He received a tremendous response. The construction work started on April 1.

It took just 20 days for Dr Bidduth Barua to complete the Chattogram Field Hospital. The hospital started taking patients on April 21.

In the Facebook group, he posted the video of the first patient he received with empathy, giving a new hope to the jittery people.

By that time, he also managed volunteers and trained them to serve the patients. It was not easy to convince people to serve patients with highly infectious Covid-19.

Dr Bidduth Barua relied on the power of the young people in Bangladesh.

He received 730 applications following an appeal for volunteers and picked 30 out of them for the hospital.

Apart from volunteers, Dr. Bidduth Barua managed four nurses and three doctors including him when he started taking patients with a slogan ‘love and compassionate care’.

More volunteers added to the team over the time. The government also came forward and helped him by deputing four doctors.

With that, the hospital offered 140 days of relentless service under the leadership of Dr. Bidduth Barua.

Some 1612 patients received the service, mostly outdoor.

Of the admitted 268 patients, 242 returned home healthy, four died and others were shifted to Chattogram Medical College Hospital for advanced treatment.

The Chattogram Field Hospital used to bear all the expenses of the patients including medicines, food, and lab tests. 

Most of the patients recovered and returned home due to the sincerity and compassionate care of the doctors, nurses and volunteers and constant monitoring of Dr. Bidduth Barua who used to stay inside the hospital round the clock.

Following his courage, many people and organisations also came forward with different services during the pandemic.

Private hospitals, which initially turned away patients, started resuming their services and taking Covid-19 patients. 

On August 31, after 140 days of humanitarian service, Dr. Bidduth Barua announced to suspend the operations of the hospital as the patients’ turnout dropped down to zero with available services in all government and private hospitals across Bangladesh by that time. But he announced that his team is ready to resume the service anytime, if needed.