NITOR to expand to 1000 beds

The 500-bed National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopaedic Rehabilitation (NITOR), Bangladesh’s lone hospital of its kind, is going to be expanded to a 1000-bed one.

NITOR Director Prof Khandaker Abdul Awal Rizvi said paper works of the expansion project are complete and it awaits the Executive Committee of National Economic Council (ECNEC) approval.

Speaking at the annual conference of Bangladesh Orthopaedic Society in the capital on Tuesday, he said the expansion is much needed for ‘the growing number of injuries and aged patients.’

“Aged people suffer different type of joint complications that need advanced treatment,” he said.

The Director said NITOR, which was established soon after the Liberation War in 1971 to treat and rehabilitate thousands of war injured, still lacks sophisticated equipment including modern operation theatre, CT scan and MRI machines.

Inaugurating the conference, Health Minister A F M Ruhal Haque, also an orthopaedic surgeon, said the government would take steps to upgrade the hospital equipment.

“We still can’t provide necessary equipment. But I think slowly we’ll be able to support,” he said as he was listing government’s steps to upgrade the orthopaedic discipline in Bangladesh.

The Minister said the present government has so far created 134 new posts for orthopaedic surgeons in different medical colleges.