Bangladesh has one hospital bed for every 990 patients: Health minister

There is one hospital bed for every 990 patients in the country, Health and Family Welfare Minister Samanta Lal Sen told parliament on Thursday (29 February).

He said that the total number of beds in all the government and private hospitals is 1,71,635.

The minister said the number of beds for every 50 people in the public hospital is 0.0211 and the government has a plan to increase the number of beds in each government hospital in phases.

The health minister said this in reply to a query from an independent MP elected from Mymensingh ABM Anisuzzaman.

"According to the information of the Health Bulletin of 2022, there are a total of 1,71,675 beds in the country with the number of government beds being 71,660 and the number of private beds being 99,975,"  Sen said.

In reply to a query of independent MP Md. Nasser Shahrear Zahedee, the minister informed the House that there are only five graduate pharmacists in all government hospitals.

In response to a supplementary question of Opposition Chief Whip and Jatiya Party MP Mujibul Haque Chunnu, the health minister said that if MPs remain with him, he can certainly close the illegal clinics and diagnostic centres.

He urged MPs to monitor whether the clinics or diagnostic centres in their respective areas have all the facilities and licenses.

The minister said that he is not in favor of closing all hospitals. Hospitals that have the necessary equipment should run.

In response to a supplementary question by AL MP HM Badiuzzaman, the health minister said that he will go to all the departments and identify the problems in the hospitals and arrange for quick solutions.

"If the treatment of marginalised population is ensured, there will be no crowd of patients in cities like Dhaka and Chattogram and they will not have to lie on the floor," he also said.

In response to the question of AL MP Mahbub ur Rahman, the health minister said that 383 of the 429 functional upazila hospitals in the country have x-ray machines. Out of which 53 are inactive, said the minister.

While replying to a query of Muhibur Rahman Manik, Awami League MP elected from Sunamganj, the health minister informed the House that the new Corona variant—SARS-CoV2 variant JN.1 has entered  Bangladesh through international visitors.

He also said that the government has taken various measures to contain spread of the new variant of Corona as this variant has already spread to 71 countries of the world including India, Singapore, Indonesia and China.

In reply to a query of AL MP elected from Chattogram M Abdul Latif, the health minister said the government has taken various measures to ensure universal health coverage under the health and family welfare ministry by 2030.

"Initiatives have been taken to introduce social health insurance for formal sector government employees and garment workers. Necessary preparations are being made for this. In the future, the informal sector will also be covered under this insurance," he added.