The government has begun a recruitment drive to fill vacant posts across the country’s health sector, aiming to ensure healthcare for people at the grassroots level in line with its election manifesto.
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has already launched emergency recruitment for grades 13 to 16. The initiative is part of the 100,000 health worker recruitment announced by the current government under Prime Minister Tareque Rahman.
Health and Family Welfare Minister Sardar Md. Sakhawat Hossain has announced that 7,500 doctors and 5,000 nurses will be recruited within the next three months to address the sector’s staffing shortage. Of these, 184 doctors recruited through the 48th BCS will join on Sept. 7 — 19 as assistant dental surgeons and 165 as assistant surgeons.
To facilitate the recruitment, the Health Services Division’s Administration-3 (Monitoring and Coordination) branch issued a directive on June 30 seeking updated data on current staff and vacant posts across the ministry.
The directive said that, as part of election-related preparations, departments, agencies and divisions under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare must urgently submit post-wise lists of current staff and vacancies.
According to the latest data, the Directorate of Family Planning, the Directorate General of Health Services and the Directorate of Nursing and Midwifery together have a total of 234,024 sanctioned posts, of which 73,045 — or 31.21% — are vacant.
On Aug. 20, Professor Jalal Uddin Mohammad Rumi, director (administration) of the Directorate General of Health Services, signed a letter instructing officials at all health facilities nationwide to take the necessary steps for recruitment.
Following a decision at the Health Services Division’s monthly coordination meeting on July 14, the letter said that, per the prime minister’s directive and the election manifesto, steps have been taken to recruit 100,000 health workers to address staffing shortages across all institutions under the ministry.
It further said that for health facilities where recruitment notices were published and applications accepted by Feb. 10 this year but the process was not completed, new vacancy clearances should be obtained and recruitment notices reissued, coordinating with earlier applications to complete the process quickly. It also directed that any pending litigation or administrative complications related to recruitment be resolved swiftly.
The BNP’s election manifesto states that, if it forms the government, it will bring primary healthcare to every doorstep and build a strong nationwide primary healthcare network, recruiting at least 100,000 skilled health workers in phases across various posts, 80% of them women.
Page 19 of the manifesto’s second chapter, under the heading “Healthcare,” states that health is not a privilege but a basic right, and that the BNP’s goal is to ensure universal health coverage under the principle of “health for all.”
The Health Ministry had earlier written to the Director General of Health Services asking that 34,714 vacant posts across hospitals and health facilities under the Directorate General of Health Services be filled quickly.
The letter said that, according to the directorate’s Human Resource Information System (HRIS), 20,816 posts in grades 11 to 16 and 13,389 posts in grades 17 to 20 are currently vacant, for a total of 34,714 vacancies.
Asked about this, Director General of Health Services Professor Dr. Provat Chandra Biswas said the initiative to fill vacant health-sector posts to ensure grassroots healthcare has progressed significantly. “We have already sent a preliminary Development Project Proposal (DPP). This recruitment process will begin in phases. We have written to the ministry seeking approval to hire staff. Once the Finance and Public Administration ministries approve, we will publish recruitment notices. We hope to begin the recruitment process very soon,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Health Education and Family Welfare Division has extended the validity of an earlier clearance for recruiting 1,855 posts in grades 11 to 20 under the Directorate of Family Planning. Under the new decision, the recruitment clearance for these posts will remain valid until June 30, 2027.
Under the clearance, the Directorate of Family Planning has 1,667 posts across 17 categories at headquarters level and 188 posts across four categories at district level, for a total of 1,855 posts cleared for recruitment.
Health and Family Welfare Minister Sardar Md. Sakhawat Hossain said the current government, in line with its election manifesto, has taken the initiative to recruit 100,000 health workers under the ministry in phases. He said the recruitment process will be completed quickly and the necessary steps taken to fill existing vacancies at all government hospitals nationwide.