Health and Family Welfare Minister Sardar Md Sakhawat Husain has said the demands of protesting intern doctors, trainee doctors and medical students will be reviewed to assess how justified and acceptable they are before taking necessary action.
He said that “Health secretary and director general of the Directorate General of Health Services will hold a meeting with the protesting doctors and students.”
He added that this is a democratic country and everyone has the right to protest. Their demands will be reviewed before taking the next decision.
He made the remarks on Monday morning at the Health Ministry during a programme where the Bangladesh Association of Pharmaceutical Industries handed over 100,000 intravenous (IV) fluid bags as a donation to support the treatment of dengue patients.
Sakhawat Husain has said the government will not hesitate to take any decision in the public interest over the deaths of six newborns at Ad-din Hospital.
“The government had taken an additional two days to review the report on the incident before making a decision against those responsible” he added.
He also mentioned a decision would be announced on Tuesday.
Sakhawat Husain added that the government would appoint lawyers to review the report properly and make recommendations regarding the decision.
The hospital authorities may appoint their own lawyers and provide compensation to the affected families, but that remains their own matter, he said.
However, he stressed that any compensation arrangement would not affect the government’s decision regarding the incident.
Referring to preparations for the dengue season, the minister said the government was making every possible effort to tackle the disease. He said maintaining an adequate stock of saline was an important part of that preparation and that the government currently has sufficient supplies.
Asked about his statement to a parliamentary committee that many children died from measles because vaccinations were not administered during the tenure of the interim government, the minister said the statement was true. He added that the government is now continuing its vaccination programme and aims to eliminate measles.
The minister also mentioned, Bangladesh currently exports medicines to 140 countries and that the government is working to expand that number further. To achieve that goal, he said, the government will provide all necessary support to private pharmaceutical companies.
He also said that children who have received the measles vaccine will develop antibodies within June. The government aims to bring measles cases down to zero and is taking all necessary measures in this regard.
