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The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Thursday said that they had set 10 issues in their priority list in the future reform agenda to improve healthcare and health education.

The ministry, in a press briefing titled ‘One year of interim government: achievement and future reform plan in health sector’ at Sheheed Abu Sayeed International Convention Centre, said that the issues were set to bring qualitative change in the sector.


Addressing the press briefing, health adviser Nurjahan Begum said that they faced huge challenges, mostly due to movement in the sector and the presence of fascists’ collaborators in the past one year.

She said that they, in spite of challenges, ensured treatment for the July movement victims.

Special assistant to the chief adviser Sayedur Rahman said that they were reshuffling the whole sector for a qualitative improvement.

He said that the government had initiated the reforms on the basis of 10 priority areas.

The areas include a merit and skill-based health system, decentralising healthcare services, improving primary healthcare and transparency, reducing dependency on foreign nations, and inspiring service providers.

Nurjahan Begum said that they had already made lists of July uprising victims and replaced the collaborators of the fascists in the sector.

She said that the ministry had so far received a list of 13,811 people who were injured during the July movement. Of them, 12,042 verified victims were listed in a gazette.

At least 78 injured victims received better treatment abroad, she said.

To address the manpower crisis, the government has taken a number of decisions and, as part of that, 7,000 doctors will be promoted.

‘Doctors are getting promotion to the super numeric positions for the first time in the country,’ Sayedur Rahman said.

Besides, the government has decided to appoint 3,000 doctors through the 48th BCS examination, and 3,500 doctors are waiting to join through 45th, 46th and 47th BCS examinations, he said.

The government has also appointed 3,512 senior staff nurses and 900 others are now in the appointment process, he said.

Besides, the ministry has proposed to create 5,000 more posts for senior staff nurses and 4,000 midwives, he said.

He said that they wanted to ensure quality healthcare at an affordable price.

As part of that, he said that the ministry had reduced prices of heart stents recently and was working to bring the prices of medicines under monitoring.

Sayedur said that they had also prioritised institutional reforms like establishing independent health education accreditation, healthcare facility accreditation, and a medicine price monitoring institution.

He said that they were also working to declare primary healthcare a constitutional basic right.