The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) has said that the agreement between it and Regent Hospital to treat Covid-19 patients was made on orders of the Health Ministry.
In a statement on Saturday, it claimed that its Director General (DG) Abul Kalam Azad didn’t know Regent Hospital’s Chairman Md Shahed before the signing of the contract.
On expired licences of the Uttara and Mirpur branches of the hospital, the DGHS said that the March 21 agreement was signed on the condition of renewing those.
“Before the agreement, the DGHS DG had never met Shahed,” reads the statement by its Assistant Director Md Jahangir Kabir.
However, inputs from intelligence agencies pointed at misconducts by the hospital, it said before adding the July 6 raid by the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) in presence of DGHS officials were conducted based on those reports.
The DGHS claimed that it was “deceived while doing good”.
Md Shahed posted this photo of "meeting" at the office of director general of DGHS on his Facebook profile on April 2 | CollectedLaw-enforcement agencies have launched a manhunt for Shahed after it emerged that his hospitals swindled thousands of unsuspecting patients out of millions on the pretext of coronavirus treatment.
RAB has already sealed off the two branches of Regent Hospital. It also started a case against 17 people, including Shahed, on charges of issuing fake Covid-19 test reports and other irregularities.
The statement also responded to the issue of JKG Healthcare, a shady outfit which trained volunteers to collect samples for Covid-19 testing.
Ariful Chowdhury, the chief coordinator of JKG, owns Oval Group, an event management company that worked for the Health Ministry in 2018, it said.
After the Covid-19 pandemic unfolded, Ariful proposed the DGHS to train volunteers and set up sample collecting booths.
According to the DGHS statement, the proposal looked good and received its nod at a time when it was crucial for the country to increase testing capacity.
Following the arrest of Ariful for his alleged involvement in fake test report scam, the DGHS revoked its permission granted to JKG Healthcare on June 24.
