Medicine shops can remain open 24 hrs

Health and Family Welfare Minister Zahid Maleque on Thursday said medicine stores would remain out of the purview of the government's ongoing power-saving moves - taken in the wake of energy crisis.
The minister made the statement a day after Dhaka South City Corporation Mayor Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh instructed all general pharmacies in the capital to close operations by midnight, while private drug stores attached to hospitals could remain open until 2:00 am.
Terming the service delivered by the medicine outlets as an emergency one, the minister said such shops could remain open round the clock, as they did not issue any instruction as far as limiting business hours was concerned.
The minister was speaking to the media after a meeting on the service activities of Bangladesh's hospitals at the health ministry.
Mr. Zahid Maleque said any instruction to shut down drug stores was not issued. Medication is an urgent necessity and an important part of healthcare services.
"The timetables aimed at regulating electricity consumption did not include hospitals. So, pharmacies can remain open 24 hours a day."
"If the city corporations ask to close pharmacies by midnight, we will discuss (with them) and find a solution. I think these should remain open 24 hours a day. We will take measures to keep these open," he added.
The government took various austerity measures to lessen growing import cost of fuel oils by regulating power consumption - following the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war that made the global market of fuel oils highly volatile.
As part of the measures, the government directed shops, malls and markets to close by 8:00 pm, restaurants by 10:00 pm, cinema halls by 11:00 pm, while limiting the government office hours alongside introducing two day-offs in the country's educational institutions.

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