31 July uprising victims to receive treatment in Pakistan: Health adviser

The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) is taking preparation to send 31 July-August uprising injured to Pakistan for advanced treatment.

The DGHS has already sent 43 people injured in the July-August mass uprising abroad for improved treatment. Now preparations are underway to send 52 more people abroad. Of them, 31 will be sent to Pakistan.

Nurjahan Begum, health adviser to the interim government, revealed this information at a press conference held at the Foreign Service Academy in the capital on Sunday afternoon.

The press conference was organised primarily to inform about the work accomplished by the interim government and the health ministry regarding the treatment of those injured in the July mass uprising.

As of now, 864 martyrs have been listed in the July mass uprising. There are more than 14,000 people on the list of injured people. However, this number ischanging. The work of verifying the information of the actual dead and injured people is still ongoing, said Adviser Nurjahan Begum.

Referring to the initial complications and obstacles in the treatment of the injured, she said, “So far, 43 injured people have been sent abroad for advanced treatment. Of these, 26 have been sent to Bangkok, 16 to Singapore and one to Russia. The government has spent Tk6.5 crore for one patient and Tk3.5crore for another.”

Mentioning that more people injured in the mass uprising will go abroad for better treatment, the health adviser said that 21 people will go to Turkey and 31 to Pakistan.

She said that of those who have been or will be sent abroad for treatment, 70% are ordinary people and the remaining 30% are students.

The Chinese government will build a 1000-bed hospital in the country, said the adviser.

At the press conference, Director General of the DGHS Abu Zafar said that some people have doubts about what will happen to the injured if the interim government leaves power.

He said various initiatives have been taken to ensure that they do not face any difficulty in getting medical treatment or other facilities in the future, including collecting information and issuing health cards.

The DGHS chief further said that the Chinese government will set up a hospital in Bangladesh. The land for the 1,000-bed hospital that the Chinese government will build here will be finalised around the Teesta project.

It was also informed at the press briefing that both eyes of 21 people and one eye of 450 people were completely destroyedin the July mass uprising. Doctors have surgically removed the legs of 17 people, while the hands of four people to save their lives.