Staff Correspondent

Prime Minister Tarique Rahman on Monday told Parliament that the government would establish six dedicated 100-bed hospitals in major industrial areas to ensure proper healthcare services for workers.

“To ensure proper medical care for workers and the working class, the government has planned to construct six hospitals, each with a capacity of 100 beds,” he said, adding that the hospitals will initially be established in Dhaka’s Savar and Ashulia, Gazipur’s Tongi and Kaliakair, Narayanganj and Chattogram.

The hospitals would be dedicated exclusively to workers, the Prime Minister said while replying to a lawmaker's question in Parliament. “The hospitals will be named and developed specifically as healthcare facilities for workers.”

Earlier, raising the issue on a point of order, BNP lawmaker Shamsur Rahman Simul Biswas urged the Prime Minister to inform the House whether the government had any specific plan to establish hospitals in labour-intensive areas to ensure healthcare services for workers and their families.

He said they had heard from the labour minister about the Prime Minister's interest in ensuring healthcare services for low-income productive citizens, particularly working people.

At this point, Deputy Speaker Barrister Kayser Kamal said the lawmaker had raised the question ahead of the Prime Minister's question-answer session scheduled for Wednesday, as Tarique would not be present in the House on that day.

Responding to the query, the Prime Minister said Bangladesh's energy sector had been made dependent on foreign sources during more than a decade of authoritarian rule, with the country becoming reliant on imports instead of utilising its own mineral resources for the benefit of its people.

He said the country's industrial development had also been hampered by import-dependent policies that prevented domestic industries from growing naturally.

Tarique said the country's healthcare system had similarly been gradually weakened during the previous autocratic regime, particularly in rural areas, where healthcare facilities established under earlier democratic governments had also been destroyed.

He said the Leader of the Opposition had also expressed concern over the country's healthcare system during a recent parliament session.

The Prime Minister said it was evident that the healthcare system had been deliberately destroyed during the authoritarian regime, forcing people of Bangladesh to go to a particular foreign country to seek medical treatment.

He said the current government had been elected by the people's votes and was working for people from all classes and professions. “The government is also giving importance to healthcare services for workers,” he added.