Abul Bashar Mohammad Khurshid Alam. Photo: Collected

Dr Abul Bashar Mohammad Khurshid Alam, a professor of Dhaka Medical College (DMC), has been appointed as the new and 27th director general of the Directorate General of Health Services.

The Health Services Division of the health ministry issued a circular in this regard yesterday.

Prof Abul Bashar, chairman of the surgery department at DMC, has been asked to join the post immediately.

His appointment came a day after Prof Abul Kalam Azad resigned from the post on Tuesday.

His resignation came after a rift between the ministry and the directorate over the signing of a memorandum of understanding with Regent Hospital, which was found issuing fake Covid-19 test reports.

Azad mentioned his deteriorating health as the reason behind his resignation.

On July 7, a Rab mobile court led by Executive Magistrate Sarwoer Alam raided Regent Hospital's Uttara branch and sealed it off on charges of issuing fake Covid-19 test results and illegally collecting money from patients.

The hospital issued more than 10,000 coronavirus test reports. Around 4,200 of the tests were real. The rest of the reports were issued without testing, Rab said.

On July 8, the same Rab team sealed off the hospital's Mirpur branch.

The hospital's licence expired in 2014 and was never renewed.

On July 11, the DGHS in a letter said it took the initiative to sign the MoU with Regent Hospital after being directed by high officials of health ministry.

The directorate also said that despite the two branches of the hospital having expired licences, it signed the MoU and gave them permission to treat Covid-19 patients with the condition of renewing the licences.

Later, the ministry, however, asked for an explanation from the DG for why he blamed the health ministry.

On July 14, the health minister responded by saying he attended the contract signing ceremony upon request from the DG.

On July 15, the immediate-past DG Azad replied to the health ministry's letter saying that its MoU with Regent Hospital on treating Covid-19 patients was signed following directives of the former health secretary.

The ministry, however, asked another explanation as it was not "satisfied" with the response.

Amidst this blame game, Prof Azad submitted his resignation to the public administration ministry, which was effective from the same day (July 21).

After cancelling Azad's, the government appointed Khurshid as the new DG yesterday.