Shawdesh Desk:

Health and family planning minister Zahid Maleque on Monday said that the government had recruited 70,000 healthcare professionals in the past three years to ensure better medical services to the people.

‘Among the newly recruited 70,000 medical professionals, 20,000 are physicians, 30,000 nurses and 20,000 are health workers,’ he told a conference at Nagasaki University School of Medicine memorial hall in Japan, an official release said.

The conference titled ‘International symposium, Advancing the global health agenda from Nagasaki’ was held at Nagasaki University School of Medicine.

Medical Education Division secretary Azizur Rahman and Directorate General of Health Services director general Professor Dr Abul Bashar Mohammad Khurshid Alam also attended the conference.

The health minister said that Bangladesh had made a remarkable progress in the past 10 years under the leadership of prime minister Sheikh Hasina.

In order to improve overall healthcare system in the country, the government has upgraded 500 upazila hospitals to 50-bed ones with modern facilities, he added.

Besides, the district hospitals has been upgraded to 250-bed ones while 22 healthcare institutes with 500-bed capacity have been established in Bangladesh, Maleque added.

There are 37 medical colleges with 1000-bed capacity in the country, he said, adding Bangladesh has established five medical universities.

Community clinics are marking significant contribution to providing medical services to the rural people, Maleque said, ‘A total of 32 types of medicines are available in community clinics…Rural people are getting basic healthcare services from the community clinics.’