Participants in a programme in Sylhet on Tuesday pointed out that the healthcare management in the urban areas was weaker than that in the rural areas.
They said the existing health service was not sufficient considering the requirement and even was not as per the standard in all areas when non-government organisations besides the government agencies were working in the field.
The discussants also said bringing strategic change in the national health policy as well as 6th five-year plan of the government was imperative.
They said these addressing a workshop on 'draft urban healthcare strategy' in the Sylhet City Corporation conference room in the morning.
Sylhet city mayor Badar Uddin Ahmad Kamran addressed the programme as chief guest and urban health specialist AMM Shawkat Ali, also a former adviser to a caretaker government, placed the keynote paper in the programme.
SCC health-affairs standing committee president Mohammad Shahjahan presided over the workshop arranged in association with the ministry of local government, rural development and cooperatives and the ministry of family planning to prepare an urban healthcare strategy.
Former bureaucrat (secretary) Waliul Islam, Sylhet Metropolitan Police commissioner Amulya Bhushan Barua, additional district magistrate Shahidul Alam, district bar association president EU Shahidul Islam and SCC chief health officer Sudhamoy Mazumdar, among others, addressed the programme.
The mayor said the corporation, with its shortage of manpower, was trying its best to provide healthcare facilities for the citizens.
'Sylhet City Corporation will be able to enhance the quality of service if its workforce is increased,' Kamran added.
More than one hundred officials of the city corporation, public and private institutions and non-government organisations participated in the workshop.
Source : New Age
