Demand for a new Sadar and general hospital in Rangpur, no ministry step despite repeated letters
A demand has been raised in Rangpur for a new Sadar hospital and a district-level general hospital to improve medical services and reduce patients' suffering. Although the Civil Surgeon's office has written several times on the matter, the health ministry has not yet taken any step.
Because no new hospital has been built, the desired medical service at Rangpur Medical College (RMCH) Hospital is being disrupted under pressure from patients and their relatives. According to concerned circles, the 96-year-old Sadar hospital cannot be renovated and made usable again. It has now become an abandoned and risky building.
Local residents allege that the Sadar hospital, abandoned and dilapidated for a long time, has now turned into a haunted house. As no new government hospital has been built in the last five decades, RMCH Hospital is the main place of reliance for medical care for people of the region.
The Sadar hospital, established in 1930, was once one of the main places of reliance for medical care for the people of Rangpur. After independence, its activities gradually shrank over time. When RMCH Hospital started in 1976, the Sadar hospital's activities became even more limited. Later the building was used at times for immunisation activities, at times as an infectious disease hospital, and at times as RMCH Hospital's diarrhoea ward. That activity is also now closed.
On the spot, the old Sadar hospital building, located opposite Rangpur City Corporation in the heart of the city, was seen lying abandoned. The once red building is now covered in bushes. Although the hospital's main gate is closed, the iron grilles on both sides are missing. Dogs and cats roam inside.
Local residents living beside the hospital said thieves have taken away various doors and windows of the building. Bushes have grown all around. After evening, drug users are seen taking drugs there. Sometimes gambling goes on during the day. Although 'Infectious Disease Department' is still written on the upper part of the building at the entrance, there is no medical activity there.
With medical services closed at the Sadar hospital, patient pressure has increased at RMCH Hospital. Every day two to three thousand patients receive treatment at the outpatient department. Another two and a half to three thousand patients are admitted and receiving treatment. This 1,000-bed hospital has manpower for only 650 beds. As a result, doctors, nurses and other health workers are struggling to serve nearly three times the capacity in patients.
As RMCH Hospital is located at the western end of the city, patients from different areas also take longer to reach there. In particular, relatives face trouble taking seriously ill patients to hospital because of traffic jams.
In this situation, on 12 August 2025 Rangpur's Civil Surgeon wrote a letter to the Director General of the Directorate General of Health Services. The letter proposed building a 250-bed district or Sadar hospital on the site proposed for a 50-bed health complex in Ishwarpur and Haridevpur mouzas, outside Rangpur metropolis but within the district headquarters.
Rangpur Sadar upazila, formed of five unions, has a population of more than 718,000. On 26 October last year, the then deputy commissioner tried to bring the matter of building a 250-bed hospital in Rangpur Sadar to the health ministry's attention at the deputy commissioners' conference.
Advocate Palash Kanti Nag, member secretary of Rangpur Mahanagar Nagorik Committee, said doctors and nurses are struggling to provide medical care to a huge number of patients at RMCH Hospital with limited manpower. He said if the old hospital cannot be renovated and reopened, a new hospital must be built.
Khandaker Fakhrul Anam Benju, president of Shushashoner Jonno Nagorik (Sujan) Rangpur district, said the health ministry must take initiative to build a new Sadar hospital and a district-level general hospital in Rangpur. He noted this is a demand not only of Rangpur but of people of the whole division.
Rangpur Civil Surgeon Dr Shahin Sultana said the health ministry has been written to repeatedly for building a hospital in Sadar upazila to ensure health services for the people of Rangpur Sadar. The letters mentioned the need for building the hospital and possible locations. She said if the ministry takes a step, it will be possible to build the Rangpur Sadar hospital or a district-level general hospital.
Dr Md Meshkatul Abed, assistant director of the Directorate General of Health Services' Rangpur divisional office, said Sylhet and Barishal have Sadar hospitals alongside medical college hospitals. Considering the treatment of a huge number of people in Rangpur division's eight districts, a large-scale Sadar hospital is also needed here.
