Govt to install 60 dialysis machines at district level: Health minister

NAOGAON, Aug 23: Health Minister Sardar Md Sakhawat Hossain on Sunday said the government will install 50 dialysis beds at every medical college hospital and 10 at every district-level hospital to reduce the need for patients to travel to Dhaka for treatment.

“There will be 60 dialysis machines at the district level. If each of the 60 machines serves three patients a day, 180 patients will be able to receive dialysis daily,” he said.

The minister made the remarks while talking to journalists after visiting Naogaon 250-bed General Hospital around noon. He had arrived at the hospital for a surprise inspection around 10am and visited different wards and talked to patients.

He said the government expects to complete the installation of the dialysis facilities within three months as the machines have already been tendered.

“We will install 10 dialysis beds at the upazila level within the next two years. The DPP for the buildings has already been prepared and the work will go to tender,” he said.

The minister also said the government was expanding the capacity of hospitals from 101 to 151 beds.

“Within the 151 beds, 25 will be reserved for women to provide maternal care so that women do not suffer. Another 20 beds will be allocated separately for children,” he said.

He said separate physiotherapy wards would be established for men and women, with male physiotherapists treating male patients and female physiotherapists treating female patients.

The minister said modern pathology laboratories and diagnostic facilities, including ultrasonography and other equipment, would be introduced at hospitals.

“A nine-storey building will be constructed on vacant land. If an existing building has a suitable foundation, we will expand it vertically. This is how we are taking healthcare services to the upazila level,” he said.

On the shortage of manpower in hospitals across the country, Sakhawat said no adequate recruitment of doctors had taken place over the past 17 years.

“We have a population of 200 million. How many doctors do we have? How many doctors have been recruited? Now we are going to recruit 5,000 doctors and all formalities have been completed,” he said.
The government will also recruit 2,500 nurses and 2,500 pharmacists, he added.

“Interviews of more doctors are underway at the Public Service Commission. We hope that within a year, we will have a very good batch of doctors. We will get many doctors, InshaAllah. Then there will be no shortage of doctors,” he said.

Regarding private clinics and hospitals, the minister said many such facilities had sprung up across the country without adequate accountability over the past 17 years.

“Wherever I go, I am inspecting them and closing some of them. If they do not have licences, we are shutting them down,” he said.

He said deputy commissioners, along with civil surgeons, were conducting mobile court drives and fining unauthorised facilities.

Naogaon-5 (Sadar) MP Zahidul Islam Dhalu, Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Saiful Islam, Naogaon 250-bed General Hospital Superintendent Dr AM Akhtaruzzaman, Civil Surgeon Dr Aminul Islam and officials from different levels of the health department were present during the visit.