Govt to import 20 lakh bags of saline

The government will import 20 lakh saline bags on an emergency basis to resolve the existing saline crisis in hospitals that resulted from a severe dengue outbreak in the country.

The saline bags will be imported by direct procurement method to remedy the crisis in the shortest possible time. The health ministry has sent a proposal in this regard for the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs' approval in principle. A committee meeting chaired by Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal is scheduled to be held today, said sources.

According to the proposal, 1.2 lakh bags of normal saline, and 8 lakh bags of glucose saline will be imported at a cost of Tk29.19 crore.

As the dengue situation in the country became serious, the Health Services Division decided to procure 7 lakh bags of saline on 13 August this year. Of this, 3 lakh bags have been procured through the direct purchase system, which were being supplied to hospitals across the country from Tuesday.

A health ministry official told TBS that they expected the dengue outbreak to decrease by mid-September, but recently, the number of such cases has increased due to the heavy rains. Consequently, a shortage of saline bags has arisen across the country.

Apart from dengue patients, surgery, and dialysis patients have also been suffering due to the saline shortage. The patients' relatives are often forced to buy saline bags at a price three to four times higher than the actual price.

Bangladesh Competition Commission Member Hafizur Rahman told TBS that the demand for saline has increased five to seven times due to the dengue outbreak in the country. The local companies are currently able to meet 50% of the demand for saline bags in the capital, and only 30% outside Dhaka city.

Due to the shortage, patients are forced to buy a saline bag at Tk500, while it is actually priced around Tk100, he added.

The country's largest saline producer, Libra Infusions Ltd, has the capacity to produce 1 lakh bags per day but it is currently producing only 15,000 bags due to a lack of working capital. Meanwhile, a saline manufacturing unit of Square Group has been closed for several months.

Traders said the country's demand for saline was 40-50 lakh bags per month, which has recently increased to around 2.4 crore to 3 crore bags.  Currently, six local companies are able to supply a maximum of 65 lakh bags of saline per month if they run production in full capacity.

Khairul Bashar, assistant vice president of Orion Infusion, told TBS that Orion Infusion has been producing saline in three shifts every day, including the holidays. Out of the 25,000 bags produced daily, they supply 10,000 bags to government hospitals, the rest to the market.

Pharmaceutical companies said the government fixes the saline price, so they cannot hike it like the prices of various other drugs amid the dollar crisis and inflation. As a result, companies are not interested in increasing investment and production here. After 2015, pharmaceutical companies did not invest in saline production.

According to the Bangladesh Competition Commission data, the current price of a saline bag in India is 43 rupee, while in Bangladesh it is around Tk100. The traders' claim that they cannot make profit by selling saline at this rate is not acceptable, said health sector insiders.