The government is set to open one 200-bed specialized children’s hospital each in the Khulna, Barisal, Rangpur and Rajshahi divisions and in Cumilla district within the next six months. Of these, all the necessary preparations are in place to open the Barisal and Khulna division hospitals in early August.
Sources concerned said each hospital would have an intensive care unit (ICU), a central air-conditioning system and room for future expansion, along with a larger ICU unit. The tender process for procuring furniture and medical equipment for the hospitals has already been completed, and the hospitals will be inaugurated within six months. Each hospital will need 1,475 staff to operate at full capacity, and to ensure the necessary recruitment, Prime Minister Tarique Rahman has already issued directives to the Ministry of Public Administration.
Health and Family Welfare Minister Sardar Md Sakhawat Hossain has already visited Khulna, Barisal and Cumilla to inspect the hospital buildings. While inspecting the Barisal children’s hospital, he announced that it would open in early August. The health minister said the equipment needed to open the 200-bed children’s hospital — including a neonatal ventilator, CT scanner, X-ray machine, portable X-ray, multi-parameter or cardiac monitor and phototherapy machine — would be delivered by July, and that the hospital would be inaugurated on 1 August. Earlier, on 10 May, Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, in an emergency meeting with the Health Ministry, directed the quick opening of six children’s hospitals lying unused across six divisions of the country.
The prime minister also directed senior Health Ministry officials to inspect the hospitals on the ground and submit a report by 2 June. It was essentially after this that the push to open the hospitals began.
On this, Health and Family Welfare Minister Sardar Md Sakhawat Hossain said that, on the prime minister’s instructions, one 200-bed children’s hospital each was being opened in five divisions of the country within six months. These air-conditioned hospitals would also have intensive care units (ICUs).
He added that the tenders for the furniture and equipment needed for the five hospitals had already been completed. Each hospital needs 1,475 staff, and the prime minister had already instructed the public administration minister to allocate the full complement.
On the hospitals’ facilities, Sakhawat Hossain said each children’s hospital would have an ICU and central air conditioning, with room to add beds in future and a large space set aside for the ICU.
The prime minister’s Special Assistant for Health, Dr S M Ziauddin Haider, has also inspected the 200-bed specialized Barisal children’s hospital. He said this hospital would also open in August, with the emergency department starting in the first phase.
Following the prime minister’s announcement, intensive work has also begun to open the Khulna divisional children’s hospital. On 20 May, the health minister inspected the hospital under construction in Khulna, reviewed the progress of the work and expressed hope that it could be opened within six months.
Dr Md Mujibur Rahman, acting director of the Khulna divisional health office, said, “We inspected the Khulna divisional children’s hospital together with the Public Works Department and the civil surgeon. The ministry is gathering information from us about the new children’s hospital. We will act according to the directives that come from there.”
Meanwhile, on 25 May, the minister visited the children’s hospital under construction in the Beltali area of Cumilla Sadar South. He announced that this hospital, too, would open within six months.
The specialized Rangpur children’s hospital, which lay unused for six years even after construction was completed, is also set to open. It is being opened quickly on Tarique Rahman’s instructions. Dr Nazmul Hossain, director general of the Directorate General of Health Education, has already inspected the hospital’s infrastructure. He said, “Not just these five children’s hospitals — the health sector has many more such facilities that have still not opened. After the matter came to his attention, the prime minister also directed the Health Ministry to open them.”
After a long wait, the Cumilla children’s hospital is also finally set to open on the prime minister’s instructions. After an emergency meeting with the secretary at the Health Ministry, Dr Md Shahjahan, acting director of Cumilla Medical College (CuMC) Hospital, has submitted the requirement letter for staff and equipment to open the hospital to the relevant office.
The government has also taken steps to open the Rajshahi children’s hospital, which will be opened within three months. Health Services Division Secretary Md Kamruzzaman Chowdhury and Director General of Health Professor Dr Probhat Chandra Biswas have already inspected the Rajshahi children’s hospital and given the necessary instructions.
The Health Services Division secretary said outdoor services would be launched at the children’s hospital in the first phase, with other services planned in stages in the next financial year.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report