Dhaka: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday asked the authorities concerned to give special attention to the private medical colleges to ensure that they are maintaining the standard of medical education properly.

‘Private sector is coming forward, they are establishing medical colleges, but I will ask to give more attention to those to make sure that they are maintaining standard of education and they have the medical curriculum properly, ‘ she said.

She said this while inaugurating the two-day Criticon Bangladesh 2018, 3^rd International Conference on Critical Care Medicine and 1st National Conference on Critical Care Nursing at Krishibid Institution in Dhaka.

Bangladesh Society of Critical Care Medicine (BSCCM) and Critical Care Nursing Society jointly organised the programme.

The Prime Minister said that the government has given utmost importance to the development of the healthcare facilities and will do everything whatever needed for this purpose.

‘We want to make the healthcare facilities available at the doorsteps of people, even in the rural areas,’ she said.

She mentioned that the government in its previous 1996-2001 tenure introduced the community clinics, aiming to provide medicare services in the rural areas.

‘But BNP-Jamaat government shut down those just due to of political vendetta, after. After coming to power in 2009, we have resumed the services and it is giving good results,’ she said.

Sheikh Hasina said medicare service is a great and noble profession and the physicians will have to render services to their patients with sincerity and dedication.

Putting emphasis on receiving training, she mentioned that her government wants Bangladesh’s doctors and nurses to be trained up in foreign countries.

Referring to the improved medicare services in Singapore Sheikh Hasina said, Bangladesh’s trained physicians and nurses would also be able to ensure better services as the country is not lagging behind in terms of talents and knowledge.

She assured that more steps would be taken to provide improved foreign training to physicians and nurses.

She also directed the authorities concerned to impose restrictions on the entry of huge number of visitors to hospitals, particularly to ICU, saying a patient in the sensitive zone might face serious harm due to infections caused by the visitors.

Sheikh Hasina however highly praised the doctors and nurses working at the ICU with high risks and said they do the noble job like bringing patients with critical condition back to normal life.

About the steps of her government for further improving medicare services, Sheikh Hasina said, BSMMU was established as the country’s first medical university, while three more medical universities are being set up - one at Chittagong, one at Rajshahi and another at Sylhet.

‘We will establish medical university in all divisional headquarters,’ she said.

The Prime Minister said many physicians are now getting opportunities to utilise their skills and efficiency after completing MD degrees on critical care medicine from BSMMU, DMC and Birdem.

Pointing to Bangladesh’s graduation to a developing country from the LDC Group, the Prime Minister said Bangladesh got the recognition of the UN after long 46 years of independence.

It has been possible because of her government’s success in implementation of MDGs, attaining capability in health care and education, achieving high GDP growth and per capita income, she said.

Sheikh Hasina stressed maintaining continuation of the success saying Bangladesh would never be dependent on others and would go ahead keeping pace with the world.

Health and Family Welfare Minister Mohammad Nasim, State Minister Zahid Maleque, Health Services Division, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare secretary Md Serajul Huq Khan, Bangladesh Medical Association president Dr Mostafa Jalal Mohiuddin, BSCCM president Prof U H Shahera Khatun, general secretary Prof A S M Areef Ahsan and vice president Dr Mirza Nazimuddin also spoke on the occasion.