Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday inaugurated the academic activities of 11 new public medical colleges, aiming to fulfill the country’s huge demand for physicians to provide better medical services to the people.
The prime minister launched the new medical colleges through videoconferencing from her official residence Ganabhaban in the capital.
Of the 11 public medical colleges, six are government medical colleges located in Sirajganj, Tangail, Manikganj, Jamalpur, Patuakhali and Rangamati, while the rest five are army medical colleges located in Rangpur, Jessore, Chittagong, Comilla and Bogra.
Speaking on the occasion, Hasina urged the country’s physicians to extend their hands with the real mentality of serving the people.
Providing health services is a noble profession and it is the basic right of people, she said.
“The aim of physicians have to be serving people, not only earning money or making own fortune,” Hasina said adding that her government took various steps for the development of the health sector.
The prime minister hoped that the new medical colleges would play an effective role in creating efficient doctors as the country has huge demand for physicians.
These colleges would help reduce pressure on the doctors in the future when new physicians will come out successfully from there, she said.
Hasina regretted that Bangladesh’s health sector remained neglected for a long time though the country needed more medical colleges and universities to create physicians for the country’s huge population.
She mentioned that her government has taken steps to establish medical universities in every divisional headquarters, and the process of establishing two new medical universities -- one in Chittagong and another in Rajshahi --to this end is going on fast.
“This is how we can ensure better healthcare services in every corner of the country.”
The prime minister also talked to leaders, public representatives and army officials of the respective districts and regions through the videoconferencing, and assured them of fulfilling their various demands of respective regions, including establishment of a full-fledged university in Jamalpur.
Sheikh Hasina hoped that Bangladesh would become a middle-income country by 2021 and a developed and most prosperous one in South Asia by 2041.
Health and Family Welfare Minister Mohammad Nasim delivered the welcome address while State Minister Jahid Malek, Army Chief General Iqbal Karim Bhuiyan, PMO Secretary Abul Kalam Azad and Press Secretary AKM Shameem Chowdhuri were present.
