DMCH, district, upazila hospitals to be developed further: PM

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday pledged that the state-run Dhaka Medical College Hospital will get ultra-modern facilities if her party, the Awami League, wins the upcoming general election due in January and forms a government.

“Inshallah (God willing) if we get another chance, we will upgrade Dhaka Medical College Hospital as well as all district and upazila hospitals,” she said while inaugurating various projects under the ministries of water resources and health, from her official residence, Ganabhaban, through videoconferencing.

Sheikh Hasina said the aim of her government is to establish a medical university in each division.

“We need doctors, nurses and skilled people; we have allocated separate funds for research on medical science,” she said.

In this connection, she mentioned, her government has created specialized hospitals and institutes to create skilled manpower in the country.

“We have a plan to upgrade Dhaka Medical College Hospital to a 4,000-5,000-bed ultra-modern hospital,” she said.

She said the government could have done this during its current tenure… “but Covid-19 and expenditure for vaccine procurement and other related huge spendings did not allow us to do that,” she said.

She also briefly described various expenditures of the government for bringing vaccines for an immunization program to combat Covid-19.

"We were able to save the lives of people from it despite the fact that thousands died of it across the globe, including many in rich countries. But we had to spend plenty of money on it."

The prime minister said the government have upgraded each of the 32-bed upazila hospitals to 50-bed ones, 100-bed district hospitals to 250-bed ones and big district hospitals to 500-bed hospitals.

She said her administration has appointed 40,000 nurses and 22,000 physicians alongside launching the construction of houses for their accommodation.

"We are making arrangements to make sure that the healthcare services do not suffer any negligence," she said.

The prime minister said they have built community hospitals across the country to take primary healthcare services to every doorstep following in the footsteps of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

These community hospitals are distributing 30 types of medicines free of cost, she said, adding that their facilities are helping greatly to reduce child and mother mortality rates in Bangladesh.

After assuming power, she said, the BNP-Jamaat government had stopped community-based healthcare services on the plea that the people who are working at and taking healthcare services from those will vote for the Awami League despite the fact that the clinics have been rendering healthcare services to all irrespective their political affiliation.

"The BNP-Jamaat alliance does not think about the welfare of the people; rather it is busy making their own fortunes. Their mindset is narrow," she said.

Health Minister Zahid Maleque and State Minister for Water Resources Zaheed Farooque also spoke at the program.

Two separate video documentaries on the activities of the two ministries were screened on the occasion.

Sheikh Hasina virtually inaugurated 65 community eye centres at 65 upazila health complexes in 28 districts, in the fourth phase, as part of a move to set up the facility at every upazila across the country under the health ministry.

In the same program, she also opened 80 development schemes and re-digging of 430 small rivers, canals and water bodies and laid the foundation of 20 new development projects under the water resources ministry.

The prime minister unveiled the cover of a book titled "Joyjatra" featuring the development schemes implemented in the last 15 years.

Later, she talked to different beneficiaries through videoconferencing.

Source: UNB