41,391 health workers to be recruited to improve services: Minister

The government is set to recruit 41,391 health workers as part of its efforts to improve healthcare services across the country, Health and Family Welfare Minister Sardar Md Sakhawat Husain said on Wednesday.
The minister made the remarks while responding to journalists at the inauguration of a mobile hospital programme in Kasba and Akhaura upazilas and during a visit to Kasba Upazila Health Complex in Brahmanbaria in the afternoon.
He said the government was prioritising primary healthcare to bring medical services to people's doorsteps and restore the health sector, which he alleged had been damaged by corruption and mismanagement under the previous government. “The government has no plan to purchase machines for making money and then leave them unused on the streets like the fascists did,” he said.
The programme was organised by Rahman Development Foundation.
Sakhawat Hossain said the government was working to ensure quality healthcare for people in both rural and urban areas, adding that the situation in many district and upazila hospitals remained similar.
He said a 19-bed upazila health complex was established in 1979, while the number of beds was later increased to 50 during the government of former prime minister Khaleda Zia. Claiming that no subsequent government had increased the bed capacity of these hospitals, the minister said Prime Minister Tarique Rahman had decided to raise the capacity of hospitals across the country to 151 beds each.
Under the mobile hospital programme, Rahman Development Foundation plans to provide general medical services, maternal and child healthcare, dental treatment, diagnostic tests and free medicines to people in remote areas of Kasba and Akhaura. The initiative aims to bring essential healthcare services closer to underserved rural communities.