PM expresses satisfaction over community clinic’s global recognition

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday expressed satisfaction over getting global recognition of her brainchild community clinic reaching the healthcare services to every doorstep across the country, reports BSS.

“I even didn’t know when the proposal (on community clinic) was placed to the United Nations (UN). The PR (Bangladesh’s Permanent Resident in the UN) informed me after the resolution was passed unanimously,” she said.

Sheikh Hasina said this while presiding over the weekly cabinet meeting at the Cabinet Room of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).

On behalf of the cabinet, Information and Broadcasting Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud placed a proposal to thank the prime minister for her brainchild such humanitarian initiative.

The premier asked the authorities concerned including the foreign minister and the PR to formally express thanks to 70 countries which co-sponsored the proposal while all the UN member countries have unanimously supported it.

She said: “The most important thing is that the healthcare services have reached every doorstep and people are coming to take treatment there.”

A huge employment was generated centering the community clinics, she said.

Sheikh Hasina said her government wanted to share the experience of reaching healthcare services to people’s doorsteps through the community clinics to those countries that have yet reached the medicare services to the grassroots.

“Many countries have yet reached healthcare services to people’s doorsteps. If they want, we will share our experience,” she said.

Sheikh Hasina, the architect of community clinics initiative that aimed at ensuring primary treatment at every doorstep, said they had started the programme with limited resources after coming to power in 1996.

The prime minister said her government had built 11,000 houses and set up health centres in 4000 houses.

She said they had conducted a survey one year later to know about the outcome of introducing the healthcare centres and its success rate was found over 70 percent.

After seeing the positive outcome, she said they got inspired and took measures to build the health centres in all the 11000 houses.

The prime minister said but, they failed to do so as her government’s five years tenure had ended.

Coming to the power in 2001, the BNP-Jamaat alliance government had shut down the health centres as they thought that the people, who get treatment from there, must vote for the Awami League.

The prime minister questioned that why the BNP-Jamaat alliance shut the community clinics despite all the people including the Awami League and BNP-Jamaat supporters got treatment from the clinics.

After coming to power for the second time in 2008, Sheikh Hasina said they had established community clinics through forming trust as none can close it again.

The prime minister said she took the community clinic initiative following the footprint of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as he established a 10-bed hospital at union level to reach healthcare services to the doorsteps.

Sheikh Hasina, also President of the ruling Awami League, thanked the people as they gave her opportunity to serve them time and again through their mandate.

The premier expressed her gratitude to Almighty Allah as she had been saved from bullets, bombs and grenades.

“All my gratitude to Allah as I am still alive despite grenade, bomb and bullet attack was on my life. I am still working for the welfare of the countrymen,” she said.

Community clinics got global recognition as a resolution on community-based healthcare in Bangladesh was unanimously adopted at the United Nations (UN) recently.

The resolution titled — ‘Community-based primary health care: a participatory and inclusive approach to achieving universal health services’ — has given international recognition to community clinics, an official release said.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina developed the community-based healthcare innovative service initiative and under the initiative, community clinics have been established in the country to provide healthcare services to the people.

In the proposed resolution, the member states of the United Nations widely recognized the successful innovative initiative of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in establishing community clinics and dubbed the initiative as ‘The Sheikh Hasina Initiative’.