The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) has sought additional allocation from the government for providing treatment free of cost to the Rohingya people who entered Bangladesh fleeing persecution in Myanmar, officials said.
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoH&FW) recently forwarded the DGHS plea to the Ministry of Finance (MoF) in this connection.
The DGHS recommended that Rohingya people be given health service free of cost, based on the biometric registration cards or ration cards issued to them. The public hospitals can keep a tally of the patients there based on their registration numbers.
The registered Rohingya people can be given waiver on patient registration fees, pathological test fees, and ambulance rents, DGHS suggested.
It also recommended that the patients be given food free of cost. An additional allocation can be made in favour of public hospitals concerned to facilitate providing foods to the patients from the Rohingya community.
After forwarding the recommendations, the health ministry sought finance ministry's approval for their execution.
While screening the Rohingya people during the exodus health officials found that many of them were infected with various diseases including HIV/AIDS. They were in need of critical health services to stop outbreak of various diseases that are now not common in Bangladesh.
A senior official at the MoF told the FE that Bangladesh has given shelter to Rohingya people on humanitarian grounds. They are being provided with food and health services as needed in the camps.
He said the Rohingya people are also being given treatment at government hospitals when they need.
"We will, of course, consider additional allocation for their treatment and food when they are in hospitals," he said. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) early this month approved release of Tk 13.11 billion to construct rehabilitation centres at Bhasan Char in Noakhali to accommodate 0.1 million Rohingyas who fled Myanmar in "ethnic cleansing" move.
Bangladesh Navy is developing the island to make it habitable. The remote island was dubbed by many as non-habitable since the island may be swamped during the rainy season. The UN refugee agency-UNHCR-termed the relocation move "logistically challenging".
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