Health Minister Sardar Md Sakhawat Hossain on Sunday ordered the suspension of two doctors and a night guard over alleged negligence and irregularities during surprise visits to Satkhira Medical College Hospital and several health facilities in the district.
The minister began his inspection at Tala Upazila Health Complex, where he directed the director general of the Directorate General of Health Services to temporarily suspend Medical Officer Shaoli Nanjiba Tonni for remaining absent from duty for an extended period without leave.
He also instructed the civil surgeon to suspend night guard Mostafa Biswas and file a case against him over the alleged theft of an air conditioner from the hospital.
Sakhawat later visited Satkhira Medical College Hospital and ordered the temporary suspension of physician Sohana Selim for remaining absent without authorisation for more than a month.
During the visit, the minister inspected the hospital’s kitchen, washrooms and several wards. He also spoke to patients to assess the quality of treatment and other services.
Speaking to journalists after the inspection, Sakhawat acknowledged that the number of doctors remained inadequate compared with the volume of patients.
He attributed the shortage to insufficient recruitment over a prolonged period.
The minister said the government was taking several initiatives to improve healthcare services, including upgrading 50-bed hospitals to 100-bed facilities and installing 50 dialysis machines in every district and medical college hospital.
He said modern pathology and physiotherapy services would also be expanded to upazila-level facilities, with plans to eventually install 10 dialysis machines in each upazila.
The government was also working to make union health complexes and union family planning centres more effective, he added.
Sakhawat said e-health cards would be introduced soon as part of efforts to modernise the healthcare system.
Satkhira-1 lawmaker Izzat Ullah, Satkhira-2 lawmaker Muhaddis Abdul Khalek, District Council Administrator and former lawmaker Habibul Islam Habib, Deputy Commissioner Miz Kawsar Aziz, Satkhira Medical College Hospital Director Dr Kudrat-e-Khuda and other officials accompanied the minister.
