Give priority to health sector

Speakers at a roundtable yesterday called on the political parties to prioritise public health sector after forming the next government.
They said this at the roundtable jointly organised by Bangladesh Pharmaceutical Society (BPS), Pharmacy Graduates' Association (PGA), Consumers' Association of Bangladesh (CAB) and Doctors for Health and Environment at the National Press Club.
Presenting a keynote paper, Prof ABM Musa of Pharmacy department at Dhaka University placed an eight-point demand to be reconsidered by the parties who are going to form the next government.
He called for keeping the pharmaceutical industry out of any strike or movement in future for the sake of the treatment and wide exports potential.
Musa said, “Political parties should have their goals well defined and prioritise the health sector with time-bound planning.”
He further said that rural public health should be ensured by turning the health centres into full-fledged modern hospitals equipped with sophisticated instrument, medicines, doctors and nurses.
The government should take a modern combined health policy immediately to improve the country's present poor health scenario and initiate a central system to control the standards of medicine, food and cosmetics like the developed countries, he added.
Musa said as population is a burning problem in our country, the parties should pay their attention to the resolution of the problem, adding that the treatment provided by the hospitals and clinics should ensure accountability to improve the quality health service.
Prof Sitesh Chandra, Dr Rashid E Mahbub, Prof AK Azad Chowdhury, CAB president and executive editor of the Janakantha Borhan Ahmed, CAB General Secretary Kazi Faruk, BPS General Secretary Mujib Khan, PGA General Secretary Ishtiak Ahmad and Dr Mostak Hossain also spoke.