Staff Correspondent

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday said the government has reduced the child and maternal mortality rate alongside poverty rate in the country through various pragmatic steps.

The Awami League government has established community clinics across the country to help meet the primary medicare needs of the people. As a result, the child and maternal mortality rates have been reduced, she said.

The prime minister said this while the team managing the Sheikh Fazilatunnessa Mujib Memorial KPJ Specialized Hospital and Nursing College called on her at her official residence Ganabhaban in the capital.

KPJ Healthcare Berhad, a renowned Malaysian private healthcare organization running at least 29 hospitals in Malaysia, operates the Sheikh Fazilatunnessa Mujib Memorial hospital.

The organisation’s President and Managing Director Berhad Chin Keat Chyuan led the visiting team during Wednesday’s meeting with the PM.

PM’s speech writer M Nazrul Islam briefed reporters after the meeting.

The prime minister said that the Sheikh Fazilatunnessa Mujib Memorial KPJ Specialized Hospital was established at the Gazipur industrial belt so that the workers and people of the area could get medical services easily.

She said that the hospital is run by the Bangabandhu Memorial Trust.

"My sister Sheikh Rehana and I donated all our properties to the trust for people’s welfare. We have no one and we have donated our properties for the welfare of the people,” she said.

She recalled that once Bangladesh was poor: many of its people were deprived of basic healthcare facilities and could not afford two meals a day.

“We have been able to reduce the poverty rate,” she said.

Sheikh Fazilatunnessa Mujib Memorial KPJ Specialized Hospital and Nursing College was established by the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Memorial Trust.

Named after Bangabandhu’s wife Sheikh Fazilatunnesa Mujib, the 250-bed world class hospital has been serving people since its inception in 2013.

The state-of-the-art facility is located at Kasimpur union under Kaliakair upazila, Gazipur.

The facility has become the first integrated management system (IMS) certified hospital and nursing college in Bangladesh, providing patients with quality medical services. Bureau Veritas, an international certification agency, awarded it for its contributions to Bangladesh’s health sector in 2017.