1,700 unregistered healthcare facilities shut: Health minister
The government has so far sealed off at least 1,700 private hospitals and diagnostics centres in a countrywide drive, said Health Minister Zahid Maleque at parliament on Monday.
Replying to a question at the 19th session of the 11th Jatiya Sangsad, the minister said there are around 10,000 hospitals and diagnostics centres in the country. Some are providing patients with good treatment and some not. There are unlicenced ones too.
"We have also enacted a law to bring the errant hospitals to book," he noted.
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
Later, Jatiya Party lawmaker Kazi Firoz Rashid unlicenced clinics are springing up under the nose of the health directorate. Action is taken against them only when someone dies from wrong treatment in such healthcare centres or any of their irregularities are unearthed by the media.
In response to another member of parliament's question about medicine price variations of different companies, the health minister said the Directorate General of Drug Administration fixes prices of medicines based on raw material import costs, VAT and other production costs.
But the drug administration does not look at consumer-level pricing of drugs, rather it only assesses if VAT is calculated correctly, he also said, adding, "We control only prices of around 130 medicines of Essential Drugs."
Many drug-makers procure raw materials from Europe that cost more, while some import from India and China at a bit cheaper rate. Yet, prices should not vary so much, he pointed out.
"We will look into it," he added.
