SANGSAD BHABAN, June 13, 2019 (BSS) – Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal
today proposed an allocation of Tk 29,464 crore for health sector in fiscal
2019-20.
“The allocation for this purpose in fiscal 2019-20 is Tk 29,464 crore,
which is 1.02 percent of GDP and 5.63 percent of the total budget
allocations,” he said while placing the budget in the Parliament here.
In his budget speech, the finance minister proposed allocation of Tk
25,732 crore for the Health Services Division and the Health Education and
Family Welfare Division in fiscal 2019-20, which was Tk 22,336 crore in
fiscal 2018-19.
The total budget for Health Services Division is Tk 19,945 crore and Tk
5,788 crore for Medical Education and Family Welfare Division.
He said the government has been working with dedication and sincerity to
develop a healthy and energetic population by ensuring quality health
services, nutrition, affordable and quality family planning.
About improvement of maternal and child health, Kamal said various priority
programmes have been undertaken to improve maternal and child health.
To expand the neo-natal medical service, he said, Special Care Newborn
Units (SCANU) have been established in 10 district hospitals and 61 upazila
hospitals.
The finance minister said the government has undertaken steps to recruit
about 9,792 medical officers to address the growing needs among citizens for
health services.
He said community clinic is the first service centre to provide primary
health services to the rural people, while currently, about 13,000 community
clinics are operational in the country, in each of which about 40 service
recipients are getting services every day and 80 percent of them are women
and children.
To ensure protection of mental health of citizens, provide universal
mental health service, and ensure overall welfare, Kamal said, the Mental
Health Act, 2018 has been passed in Parliament abolishing the Lunacy Act of
1912.
He said the government attaches priority to the medical treatment and other
social benefits for the autistic people and people with special needs.
To fulfill the promise by the Prime Minister, 3,000 posts for midwives
have been created with a view to reducing the maternal mortality rate, the
finance minister said.
About expansion of science-based medical care, he said the government has
established an Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Science, a Newborn
Screening Central Laboratory in Dhaka, and a Nuclear Medicine Centre and a
Sterile Insect Unit in Cox’s Bazar to diagnose the hypothyroid disease among
the newborn babies.
He said the government plans to establish a mobile laboratory, a
scientific and technological information and research centre and an applied
industrial research laboratory in the BCSIR and a BSCIR research centre in
Gopalganj.
In fiscal 2019-20, Kamal said, the Institutes of Nuclear Medicine and
Allied Sciences (INMAS) will be established at the campuses of 8 medical
college hospitals in the country.