10,000 new doctors for rural areas before polls

The health ministry will recruit 10,000 physicians for posting them to district and upazila levels before the parliamentary elections this year.

“Five thousand doctors will be recruited in two to three months and the other 5,000 before the elections this year,” Health and Family Welfare Minister Mohammed Nasim said at a meeting with the press yesterday.

Once the recruitment of the 10,000 physicians is complete, there will be no shortage of doctors in rural areas, the minister said at the programme, jointly organised by Bangladesh Health Reporters Forum (BHRF) and Bangladesh Medical Association (BMA), in the capital.

Since 2009, the Awami League government recruited 13,665 physicians, but there are allegations that the recruits posted in rural areas often stay in urban areas, especially in Dhaka division, by obtaining transfer orders.

Although physician posts are limited in the capital, it is alleged that the physicians posted in rural areas use political connections to move back to the capital for higher education purposes on deputation or for working in city hospitals on attachment.

Nasim told reporters that the government is considering providing motor cars to the physicians posted at upazila levels.

Aside from recruiting physicians, the health ministry will also recruit 40,000 third and fourth-class employees at public hospitals by this year to ensure cleanliness in the facilities, the minister said.

On high out of pocket (OOP) expenditure (health spending of an individual), which is 64 percent in Bangladesh, Nasim said inadequate public fund for healthcare and an increasing number of patients inflicting diseases such as diabetes, cancer and cardiac diseases have been contributing to the rise in the OOP. 

In its attempt to reduce individual spending for healthcare, the government is conducting a pilot project on health insurance in three upazilas of Tangail, he said, adding that once the project is successful, the scheme might be replicated throughout the country.

BMA President Dr Mustafa Jalal Mohiuddin, BMA Secretary General Dr Ehteshamul Huq Choudhury, Additional Secretary Habibur Rahman Khan of health ministry, BHRF President Toufiq Maruf and BHRF Secretary Nikhil Mankhin also spoke.