Citizens’ body Janaganer Dhaka Andolan on Tuesday demanded immediate scrapping of the decision to turn Dhaka Medical College into a university.
They expressed their worries that turning the government medical college into an autonomous medical university would make it off-limit to the poor by raising treatment and other fees.
They said these at a human chain organised by Janaganer Dhaka Andolan in front of the National Press Club in the capital, said a release.
Referring to the turning of the former Institute of Postgraduate Medicine and Research to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, they said right after forming the BSMMU all kinds of fees and charges were increased at the institution.
Having rejected the government’s initiatives to turn the government medical colleges to medical universities under autonomous authorities, they said the overall healthcare of the poor and even the middle-income groups would invariably suffer as a result.
Presently, the government DMCH is operated as one institution with its medical college being headed by a principal and the hospital having a director as its head.
They also strongly criticised the government for encouraging establishment of private medical colleges and privatisation of hospitals and other treatment facilities.
The speakers also castigated the country’s diagnostic centres and pharmaceutical companies, saying that most of them moved only with a ghastly profit mongering attitude.
Andolan convener M Inamul Haque, Ganasanghati Andolan chief coordinator Zonayed Saki, Bangladesher Biplabi Workers Party leader Bahnishikha Jamali, Bangladesher Communist League central committee leader Nazrul Islam attended the meeting, among others.