Weeks after the 100-bed Narsingdi District Hospital was approved for 150 additional beds, the district has now been granted a public medical college.
Narsingdi is the home district of Health Minister Sardar Md Sakhawat Husain. With this development, he joins the last three health ministers who also established medical colleges in their home districts while in office.
The health ministry yesterday approved the establishment of Narsingdi Medical College, raising the number of government medical colleges to 39.
The administrative approval, signed by Health Secretary Quamruzzaman Chowdhury, takes immediate effect.
Health Ministry officials said the college could begin admitting students from the next academic session, subject to separate approval for enrolment.
It’s the second public medical college approved by the BNP government since it took office in February. Last month, the ministry gave approval to the Thakurgaon Medical College, in the home district of ruling BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.
The development comes at a time when at least 43.38 percent of the teaching posts at government medical colleges lie vacant, according to the latest Directorate General of Medical Education (DGME) figures.
The most critical gap is at the top level, where a staggering 68.61 percent of professor posts remain unfilled. Fifty percent of associate professor posts and 51 percent of assistant professor posts also lie vacant.
Besides, the approval process bypassed the recommendations of the Health Sector Reform Commission formed by the interim government.
In its report submitted in May last year, the commission suggested that experts should thoroughly assess the necessity for and feasibility of establishing any new medical college.
Between 2010 and 2020, the Awami League-led government established 20 public medical colleges, with many of those approvals made on political grounds, officials said.
Satkhira Medical College was established in 2011 when AFM Ruhul Haque, an MP from the district, was health minister. Shaheed M Monsur Ali Medical College opened in Sirajganj in 2014 under health minister Mohammad Nasim, a lawmaker from the district. Manikganj Medical College was also established that year, when Zahid Maleque, an MP from the district, was state minister for health. In the Awami League’s next term, Zahid became health minister.
In November last year, during the interim government’s tenure, the health ministry cut 355 seats across 14 government medical colleges due to lack of infrastructure, human resources, and equipment.
Following yesterday’s approval, the health ministry said in a press release that Sakhawat Husain, elected MP from Narsingdi‑4, took oath as health minister on February 17 this year and that he has since taken steps to establish a government medical college in his home district.
However, health ministry sources said a local organisation had previously submitted a proposal for a medical college in Narsingdi during the interim government’s tenure, and the then health administration decided to assess the necessity of establishing one there.
The ministry then wrote to the DGME for inspection on February 17, the day the health minister assumed charge, which an official of the ministry described as a “mere coincidence”.
Unlike other districts, Narsingdi already has two district‑level hospitals: the 100‑bed Narsingdi Sadar Hospital and the 100‑bed District Hospital, Narsingdi.
On May 24, the health ministry gave administrative approval to upgrade the 100‑bed District Hospital, Narsingdi, into a 250‑bed facility.
Sources said the new medical college would be based at the District Hospital, whose capacity would be further raised to 500 beds. In addition, the structure of the Sadar Hospital would be upgraded under a Japanese‑funded project.
Proposals for establishing seven more medical colleges in Brahmanbaria, Sherpur, Laxmipur, Natore, Bhola, Joypurhat and Jhenaidah are now pending, a health ministry official said.
“We are expecting more applications. In this given situation a high-powered committee has been formed to assess the applications,” the official said, seeking anonymity.
On June 10, the health ministry formed a seven-member committee led by MA Muhith, state minister for health, to assess the application for new medical and dental colleges and make recommendations, shows the office order.
The special assistant to the prime minister for the health ministry, the health secretary, the director general of the DGME, the president of the Bangladesh Medical and Dental Council and the Bangladesh Medical Research Council and a former principal of a public medical college were made members of the committee.
This correspondent could not reach the health minister for comment yesterday.
But while talking to this correspondent over the same issue on May 17, the minister said they were giving approval to the new medical colleges to meet the demands of the growing number of potential medical students from home and abroad.
He also denied any political link between the establishment of these new medical colleges.
