Institute of Diseases of the Chest and Hospital

Institute of Diseases of the Chest and Hospital (IDCH) was established as a TB Hospital with 200 beds in 1955 at Mohakhali, Dhaka. It was upgraded to IDCH in 1962 and started offering diploma course on tuberculosis and chest diseases (DTCD). As an academic, research and training institute, it has been offering the MD degree (chest diseases) from 1993 and the MS degree (thoracic surgery) from 1999. It also provides for short-course training to students of different medical colleges of the country. The hospital with the institute functions through two wings. The academic wing is equipped with a medicine department which has six units, anaesthesia, radiology, pathology, microbiology, physical medicine and transfusion medicine. The other wing is the surgical department.

Up to 1998, 242 doctors (including 10 foreign doctors) obtained the DTCD diploma and 3 doctors obtained the MD degree. IDCH has a total of 105 doctors, 233 nurses, 25 medical technologists, and 537 other staff. The hospital wing is accommodated in 10 separate blocks equipped with 170 beds for surgical treatment and 430 beds for medicine. A National Asthma Centre project is under implementation. Surgical activities include major operations involving the full range of pulmonary, extrapulmonary, esophageal and pleural surgery, bronchoscopy, and oesophagoscopy. Fibreoptic bronchoscopy and spirometry are done on an outdoor basis.

IDCH is the only referral institutional hospital in Bangladesh. It conducts about 300 major and 600 minor operations in a year. In addition to routine investigations, its pathology department carries out sputum culture for diagnosis of different pulmonary diseases. The outdoor attendance per day is about 300. These patients get specialist treatment from IDCH consultants. The Institute has about 19 hector of land for its academic and hospital buildings, and accommodation facilities for doctors, students, nurses and other staff. It has a well-equipped respiratory ICU, three operation theatres, and a post-operative ward. The pathology department has modern facilities including arterial blood gas analyzers. The physical medicine department has equipment necessary for respiratory physiotherapy. The radiology department is equipped with a 500 mm X-ray machine with screening facilities, an ultrasonogram machine, and echo-cardiographic facilities. The library contains adequate number of texts, reference books, and medical journals. [Md Sofiullah]