Healthcare

Photo: Collected Parliament Session Room; in set, Health and Family Welfare Minister Zahid Maleque

Not many Bangladeshis go to India for treatment: Health Minister

He said, when providing health care in the country, people will not go outside. He said this in reply to the supplementary question of BNP Member of Parliament Harunur Rashid in the Jatiya Sangsad on Monday (August 29).

Harunur Rashid said in his question, "There is no benefit of blaming the previous government. Because you have been in power for the last 15 years. People are going to neighbouring India for treatment as they are not getting proper healthcare in the country. Billions of dollars are being 'smuggled' out of the country. I don't know if you are weakening the health sector to create that opportunity."

In response, the minister claimed that there was no development in the health care sector during the BNP's tenure and said, "You (BNP) have not created anything. The development in this sector in the last 15 years has resulted in the average life expectancy of the people of the country being 73 years, MDG has been achieved. The vaccine has become a hero. No one has seen the face of a reward during your time. That should not be forgotten."

Zahid Maleque said, how many hospitals were there during your (BNP) time? Do you know how many hospitals there are now? Two/one to say. There are 111 medical college hospitals in the country. Your time was not even 10. Now there are 350 nursing institutes. Seats during your time were 6500. Now there are 34,000 nursing seats.

In June 2021, a report by the Indian media Times of India said that 54.3 percent of the patients who came to India for treatment were Bangladeshis.

'In Bangladesh, the prices of drugs for the same disease vary from company to company, whether the government will take any initiative to adjust it or not' - In response to this question from Jatiya Party's Pir Fazlur Rahman, the health minister said, "The price of drugs is determined by the drug administration. Including the raw materials which are imported and other production costs, a price is fixed by adding VAT. But the subsequent price (at the consumer level) of the drug is not seen by the drug administration. Whether the assessment of VAT is correct or not is within his jurisdiction. We control about 130 essential drugs. We do not control the prices of hundreds of other drugs. We only look at VAT and production costs."