The Bogura Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Medical College (SZMC) Hospital has been upgraded from 500 bed hospital to a 1,200-bed one. It has been providing medical care for five years now.

The expansion project of the hospital, at a cost of Tk. 64 crore, is almost done. Recruitment of a sufficient number of doctors and manpower is currently awaited.

The principal of Bogra Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Medical College and the general secretary of the Bangladesh Medical Association (BMA), Bogra, Prof. Dr Rezaul Alam Jewel, said the initial activities of Bogra Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Medical College began at Mohammad Ali Hospital with 250 beds in 1998. After the construction of the medical college and the new hospital infrastructure, the 500-bed Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Medical College was shifted to Silimpur in 2006. Since then, the pressure of patients has risen considerably.

On September 18 this year, the finance department under the finance ministry issued a notification to upgrade the 1,200 beds. As a result, a long-pending demand of the residents of Bogra was fulfilled.

Dr Alam further said the work for the vertical expansion of the hospital is almost done.

The expenditure has been about Tk. 64 crore, he added. The upward extension has been made from the 7.5th to the 8th floors.

According to the office of the director of the SZMCH, some 1,300 to 1,500 patients are admitted to the hospital everyday.

The quality of hospital treatment is now expected to increase further. Bogra zilla parishad chairman Dr Mokbul Hossain said more developmental works were under way, including the extension of the beds of the Bogra SZMC Hospital.  The expansion work is almost done.