Complete appointment of medical technologists

A group of graduate medical technologists have urged the government to finish two appointment processes for them, which were initiated in 2013 and 2020 separately.

An acute shortage of medical technologists in public hospitals have been causing complexities in serving patients as there has been no appointment after 2008, said a press release issued by Unemployed and Private Services Medical Technologists Association (BPSMTA) yesterday.

Medical technologists perform laboratory work at healthcare facilities, like processing test samples of patients for diagnosis.

In 2013, the health ministry published a job circular to appoint around 450 medical technologists, which later was postponed due to "legal complexities".

In 2020, appointments of 889 technologists were also cancelled at the final stage due to an allegation of financial irregularities.

"... The authorities have been delaying the examination to complete the appointment process without any reason," Shafiqul Islam, president of BPSMTA, told The Daily Star.

The organisation also demanded for a fair and transparent appointment process.

There are around 25,000 medical technologists in the country. Of them, only 5,000 are employed in public hospitals.