Health Minister Sakhawat Hossain has said that of the 41,806 sanctioned posts for doctors at the country’s government hospitals, 9,407 are vacant. Of 49,501 sanctioned nursing posts, 5,032 are vacant, and of 26,544 other sanctioned posts under the ministry, 8,784 are unfilled. The minister gave the figures in parliament on Wednesday in reply to a question from Khairul Kabir Khokon of Narsingdi-1, during the question hour chaired by Speaker Hafiz Uddin Ahmad.
Replying to Golam Rasul of Jashore-4, the health minister said that at upazila health complexes across the country, 7,429 doctors are working against 13,211 posts — 5,782 vacant; 12,146 nurses against 13,809 posts — 1,663 vacant; and 2,120 other staff against 3,186 posts — 1,066 vacant. At union sub-health centres, 644 doctors are working against 1,134 posts (670 vacant), 746 midwives against 1,312 posts (466 vacant), and 1,682 other staff against 2,627 posts (915 vacant). At union health centres, 1,460 doctors are working against 3,167 posts (1,707 vacant), and 1,645 SACMOs against 3,165 posts (1,520 vacant). Replying to reserved-seat MP Nilofar Chowdhury, the minister said 14,460 community clinics are currently operating nationwide, each supplied with 247,900 taka worth of medicines a year.
To another question from Nilofar Chowdhury Moni — whether poultry and fish feed made from toxic tannery waste is raising the risk of cancer and other serious diseases, and what the government is doing — the minister said the matter is entirely true and borne out by various studies and reports. Heavy metals including chromium are used in leather processing, he said, and some unscrupulous traders use the toxic leather waste to make cheap poultry and fish feed. Chicken meat and eggs from birds fed this way accumulate toxic hexavalent chromium (Cr-VI), which is not destroyed by cooking heat; entering the human body, it creates the risk of cancer, liver cirrhosis, ulcers and kidney failure. The government has already implemented various measures, he said, including relocating the tannery industry from Dhaka’s Hazaribagh to the leather industrial city at Savar’s Hemayetpur — enforced in 2017, after a High Court order, by disconnecting the Hazaribagh tanneries’ gas, power and water.
In the same session, replying to Shahjahan Chowdhury of Chattogram-15, Shipping Minister Sheikh Rabiul Alam said modern equipment has been added for ship and container handling at Chattogram port and management streamlined, already cutting average ship turnaround times, with the Bay Terminal expected to open by 2030. Replying to Nurul Islam of Chapainawabganj-3, Culture Minister Nitai Roy Chowdhury said the government plans to prepare a nomination file for the traditional “Gambhira” performance as UNESCO intangible cultural heritage, the form having already been listed in the national intangible-heritage inventory. He also told parliament that the country’s 50 gazetted ethnic groups and other small ethnic communities together number 1,650,159 people — about one percent of the population.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report