Health and Family Welfare Minister Zahid Maleque today said the Bangladesh government led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has attached importance to use of digital services in health sector to ensure health care for all citizens, especially who are living in remote areas.
“Huge investment has been made in installing digital health services as our major priorities are to achieve SDGs in health sector, ensuring institutional deliveries and reducing child and maternal mortality rate,” he said.
The minister said this while participating in a question-answer session at the 4th Global Digital Health Partnership (GDHP) Summit at a local hotel.
Health ministers from the host country India, Sweden, Ukraine, Cape Verde, Nepal, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Botswana, Switzerland, and Saudi Arabia also took part the interactive session.
Earlier, Indian Health Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda inaugurated the two- day summit, in which delegates from 23 member states and World Health Organization (WHO) participated and presented their country statements.
Giving an overview of using digital technology in Bangladesh’s health sector, Zahid Maleque said such technology is being used in tertiary level health facilities to improve the country’s overall healthcare facilities.
Regarding policy implementation to ensure digital health interventions in Bangladesh, he said the present government is giving 32 types of medicine for free through 14,000 community clinics across the country, health care providers are given tabs for service recording and messages are given to take vaccination and medicine for mother and children.
He said digital monitoring system has been installed in all health facilities to monitor presence of health workers aimed at ensuring quality services while internet connectivity has been provided to all hospitals and clinics.
The health minister arrived here yesterday leading a three-member Bangladesh delegation to attend the summit. The delegation includes Director General of Health Services Prof. Abul Kalam Azad.
The Global Digital Health Partnership (GDHP) is an international collaboration of governments, government agencies and multinational organisations dedicated to improving the health and well-being of their citizens through the best use of evidence-based digital technologies.
(BSS)
