Set up in 1963 as Ayub Central Hospital in Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, the Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical Hospital building was designed by the world-renowned architect Louis Kahn. The hospital used to have all the features of a typical public hospital: unclean corridor, dirty premises, filthy indoors, harassment by touts and irregular services.

But things have changed since then. The corridors are now clean. Beautiful gardens have been set up inside the hospital premises and indoors facilities overhauled. Even harassment by touts is a thing of the past and patients are provided timely services.

All these have happened just within two years thanks to the initiatives of Dr Uttam Kumar Barua, the director of the hospital, and his team.

Since taking the charge of the hospital two years ago, Dr Barua has led the team to turn the hospital into a model public hospital and its success story can be an example for other public hospitals.

“Since taking over the charge of the hospital, my sole aim was to upgrade it to the level of a top-class corporate hospital. I wanted people to see that public hospitals can also deliver quality services like high-grade private hospitals,” he told The Independent.

Dr Barua, who is a professor of the hospital's respiratory department, obtained his MBBS degree from Mymensingh Medical College and joined government services in 1997.

“There is a perception among people that public hospitals can be equated with filthy environment and appalling services. I took up the challenge to change this perception and restore confidence among them about the quality of a public hospital,” he said.   

It was an uphill task. The doctor had to face resistance from local strongmen and a racket which had been operating in the hospital for a long time. They tried to oppose his move to evict all outsiders from the hospital, who, in collusion with some employees, used to harass patients in many ways.

“Brokers used to illegally take money from patients in the name of admission and service delivery. But we have stopped the practice.

Now, you'll not find no brokers here—everything is being done as per rules. We’ve developed a system to prevent patients from facing harassment,” said Dr Barua.

He also mentioned how illegal makeshift shops and shelters, which had mushroomed around the hospital, were evicted. “A lot of illegal activities, such narcotics trading and gambling, were taking place in those shops and shelters on the hospital premises. We have evicted those makeshift arrangements,” he said.

What is amazing now is that after getting back the illegally held areas, the hospital management has converted the place into an elegant garden where patients can relax or do physical exercise.

A drastic change has come about in the area of delivery of services. A doctor at the hospital admitted that things have changed over the last couple of years. “You’ll find consultants coming to visit patients on time now,” he said.

Forty-eight teams have been formed by the director for the improvement of the hospital services. There were brainstorming sessions for the doctors, nurses and other staff so that their approach to patients could change.

Earlier, consultant doctors were rarely available in the evening. But now, they come on time for their evening duty.

About the success in keeping the hospital spick and span, Dr Barua said: “We conduct the cleaning work round the clock. Whenever a portion of the hospital is found unclean, our cleaners rush there to make it clean, even though cleaning work in most public hospitals is conducted only once a day."

This has been done with the existing manpower and budget. It was indeed been a tough job considering the fact that the hospital houses around 1,200 patients every day. There are also attendants and visitors of the patients, which mean around 8,000 people remain in the hospital every day.

“We had to introduce some code of conducts for patients, visitors and hospital employees to make the hospital clean,” Dr Barua said.

Talking about his future plans, Dr Barua said an automation project has been submitted to introduce automated services at the hospital.

“We've made the billing system partially automated. Now, we want to automate other services so that a patient can get his/her services more quickly without any hassles. Besides, a vertical growth of the facility is on the cards.

The number of beds will be almost doubled from 840 to nearly 1600,” he added.

The hospital’s revenue has obviously increased manifold. According to data given by the hospital management two years ago, the annual revenue was Tk 2.45 crore on an average. But the hospital has earned Tk. 3 crore in the first four months of this year.

The hospital's revenue growth has been possible because of the improvement in the delivery of services and removing loopholes in the revenue system, Dr Barua said.