Cell to monitor doctors

The government is going to set up a special cell to monitor doctors’ presence at rural workstations, the health minister has said as his ministry is set to post over 6,000 newly recruited doctors across Bangladesh.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 17 August 2014, 05:41 PM
Updated : 17 August 2014, 05:41 PM

“It’ll be set up at the ministry or the DG (Directorate General of Health Services) office,” Mohammed Nasim said on Sunday at a meet the press.

He said he had found keeping doctors at their workplaces as the “most challenging” in his more than seven months in office.

“But they have to serve rural people,” he said, adding that doctors’ managed to dodge duty by “lobbying and exerting influence”.

Authorities used to warn doctors to make them stay at their workplaces, but on Aug 7, when 6,151 doctors joined the government service en masse in a ceremony, the health minister announced incentives for them.
He said they would be posted in their own village and spouses would be posted at the place stations if they want.
He also announced that he would prioritise their higher studies and ensire “good posting” in future if they serve at least two years in villages.
On Sunday, at Dhaka Reporters’ Unity, he said they would be given their posting on Aug 19.
“This time, we’ll monitor them regularly,” he said, “I’ll also form a team (for the monitoring)”.
The minister, however, said it would take time to open the cell, but “we’ll do that”.