, Oct. 6 -- month-old baby struggling with pneumonia and breathing difficulties spent three nights on the floor of Rangpur Medical College Hospital before finally getting a bed-only to share it with three other children.

The experience of Sumi Akter from Kachakata in Kurigram is far from exceptional.

In the paediatric department of Rangpur Medical College (RMC) Hospital, 86 beds are routinely packed with three to four times as many patients.

Children are being treated on floors and several sharing a single bed as the hospital struggles to cope with a daily average of 260-300 admitted patients.

The overcrowding is placing enormous pressure on doctors and nurses while raising concerns about the spread of infectious diseases such as pneu...