PM wants ICU units in district hospitals
Prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday directed establishing Intensive Care Unit in every district hospital with the implementation of two donor-funded projects aiming to tackle the COVID-19 outbreak.
The PM also wanted ICU units to be appropriately equipped and manpower to be appointed so that emergency patients could receive proper services, said planning minister MA Mannan.
He said that the PM wanted no compromise on the proper flow of oxygen to the patients suffering from breathing-related ailment.
Mannan was briefing the newsman after a meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council at the planning commission.
The PM presided over the online meeting from Gonobhaban, her official residence, to give retrospective approval to two COVID-19-related projects taken since April.
‘One of them is the COVID-19 Response Emergency Assistance worth Tk 1,127.52 crore and is funded by the World Bank,’ said Mannan.
He added that the other project, COVID-19 Emergency Response and Pandemic worth Tk 1,36456 crore, began in April and is funded by the Asian Development Bank.
Ministry of health will implement the projects until April 2023.
On the question whether the government’s failure to tackle the current COVID-19 crisis was an outcome of the year-long low pubic investment in the heath sector, Mannan said that the country needed higher public investment in the sector.
He, however, said that the critics should not only asses the country’s public health budget in relation to the GDP, but also with the overall expenditure.
Mannan said the ECNEC also approved 8 other proposals including revision to the primary school stipend programme worth Tk 6,843.28 crore and the introduction of mosque-based child education at a cost of Tk 3,128 crore.
He said that two rural electrification board projects aiming at its network expansion in all divisions were also revised.
Two agriculture sector projects — one on mechanising of the sector and the other on spice cultivation — were given approval as new projects.
The ECNEC also approved a revision of the Dasherkandi Sewage Treatment Plant Project extending it to 2022 from 2020.
News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net
