Six years after the bulldozers arrived, the gleaming promise of advanced cancer, kidney and heart treatment in Barishal remains exactly that, a mere promise.
A 460-bed specialist hospital, the flagship of a government plan to bring life-saving care to all eight divisional cities, is still not open, condemning thousands across southern Bangladesh to costly, exhausting journeys to Dhaka.
The centre, rising on nearly three acres within the Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Hospital complex on Band Road, was launched in November 2020.
Contractor M/s Khan Builders was contracted to finish the 15-storey tower, including a 14,000-square-foot basement, by June 2023.
That deadline has now passed twice over. The completion date was first extended to December 2024, then to June 2025.
Now a further year’s delay is pending approval from the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC), alongside a request for additional funding for medical equipment, furniture and ancillary works.
Money and blame
The finances tell their own story. Approved at Tk238.34 crore in its Development Project Proposal, the project’s estimated cost has been revised three times and now stands at roughly Tk239 crore, a figure that does not yet include the new equipment request.
“It was not negligence on our part,” said Ripon Talukder, manager of Messrs Khan Builders, blaming late fund releases for the slow pace.
Faisal Alam, executive engineer of the Barishal Housing and Public Works Department, conceded prices rise over time but called the increase “relatively modest.”
Project director Hasan Firoz declined to reveal the size of the proposed additional funding before approval.
Machines dead since 2015
While the tower rises slowly, those waiting beneath it face a bleaker arithmetic. The clinical oncology department at Sher-e-Bangla currently operates just 21 beds, reduced from 27 a year ago, despite seeing around 40 outpatients a day.
Many who need admission cannot get a bed. Worse still, the department’s radiotherapy machine has been out of order since 2015; its radiology, radio-teletherapy and brachytherapy equipment has sat abandoned for a decade.
For a cancer patient in the south, that leaves one option: Dhaka, or nothing.
“The new treatment centre would significantly ease the shortage of cancer care in the southern region,” said ANM Moinul Islam, head of the clinical oncology department. “Steps should be taken to make the hospital operational as soon as possible.”
A family sold to survive
For Abdul Khalek, a security guard in Dhaka from Rajapur in Jhalakathi, the hospital’s delay is measured not in crores but in land, loans and a daughter’s life. His daughter, Israt Jahan Iti. a final-year postgraduate student at Barishal Government Brajamohun College, was diagnosed with colon cancer, forcing repeated trips to the capital.
To fund her treatment, Khalek sold the family’s small plot of agricultural land, borrowed from relatives and took loans, spending nearly Tk12 lakh so far. The family has five daughters; he is the sole breadwinner.
“We sold the little agricultural land we had at home. After that, I borrowed money from relatives and took loans, spending Tk12 lakh on my daughter’s treatment,” he said. “A lot more money is needed, but I can no longer afford to continue her treatment. I do not know what will happen.”
Israt’s story is not exceptional, it is the norm. Every cancer patient from the southern region faces the same punishing equation: treatment costs inflated by travel and accommodation, families pushed towards financial ruin, and patients arriving in Dhaka later and sicker than they should have been.
What must happen
Those close to the project are clear: construction must be finished quickly, equipment procured and installed, and staff recruited, so the hospital can begin treating patients the day its doors open. For now, the tower on Band Road stands as southern Bangladesh’s most expensive wait.
