Asif Showkat Kallol: The government is going to set up 60 mobile medical clinics in 12 city corporations across the country mainly to treat people with accidental injuries.
The fund for such roaming medical clinics will be coming from the Strengthening Social Resilience Programme of the Asian Development Bank.
The decision of setting up such clinics was made at a recent meeting on Health Services Target presided over by senior health secretary Lokman Hossain Miah.
The decision was also conveyed to the ministry of the local government and major city corporation officials.
Senior Secretary to the Ministry of Health Lokman Hossain Miah told the Business Insider Bangladesh that the mobile medical services project will avail emergency services to people falling in accidents. He said other medical services will also be provided to the citizens.
“There will be mobile vans plying in cities which will provide medical services from one place to another within a short period of time,” Lokman said.
Expansion of the health services programme will be approved by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
In the meeting, the officials concerned also received consent from the finance ministry to start the quite unique programme.
A sum of $75 million (approximately Tk 645 crore) is supposed to be used in the social health services in urban areas out of a total $250 million Strengthening Social Resilience Programme, Business Insider Bangladesh has learnt.
On June 18 2021, the ADB approved a $250 million policy-based loan to the government of Bangladesh to help finance reforms aimed at improving the inclusiveness and responsiveness of the country’s social development and resilience programme.
The coronavirus pandemic has significantly affected the socio economic state of Bangladesh with the decline in the country’s gross domestic product to an estimated 5.2 % in fiscal 2019-20 from 8.2% in FY19.
“Enhancing social protection is critical to cushioning the effects of the pandemic,” the ADB said during release of the fund.
“The ADB supports the government’s intention to leverage the Covid-19 pandemic as an opportunity to strengthen its social protection programmes as an essential means of building the resilience of the poor and supporting an inclusive recovery.”
According to the Bangladesh Passengers Welfare Association’s (BPWA), as many as 6,686 people lost their lives and 8,600 were injured in 4,891 road accidents in 2020 in Bangladesh.
The figures were revealed in the BPWA annual road accident monitoring report for 2020 in January 2021.
It means on average, roughly 18 people are killed every day in road accidents across the country.
