Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Saturday said the government and concerned stakeholders' collective and timely efforts helped avoid possible disasters saving many lives from the Covid-19 pandemic.
"Bangladesh has successfully managed the Covid-19 pandemic and has been able to save many lives. Considering the population density, many feared huge numbers of people would die from the pandemic. But the government and the concerned stakeholders' concerted and timely efforts helped avert the possible disaster," she said.
The premier came up with the statement in a pre-recorded speech that was aired in the "2nd International Conference on Pain-2022 and the 7th International Conference on Recent Advances in Pain-2022".
The Bangladesh Society of Anaesthesiologists Critical Care and Pain Physicians (BSA-CCPP) organised the event in Dhaka, reports BSS.
She said the BSA-CCPP deserves appreciation for giving "National Guideline on Critically Ill COVID-19 Patients" and the "Guideline on Rational Use of Oxygen"
During the pandemic, she said: "We have given special appointments to 409 junior consultants in Anaesthesia, 2,000 doctors and 5,000 nurses on an emergency basis to cope with the situation."
The Premier hoped this conference would provide a platform for sharing latest research information and techniques and help form a forum for international researchers from varied areas of pain, pain medication, assessment tools and pain management techniques.
Sheikh Hasina congratulated the BSA-CCPP for organising this important conference and welcomed the local and foreign participants.
Mentioning that people suffer from pain for various reasons, she said, "We seek immediate relief of pain whether it is acute or chronic. Pain-medicine has become a very important sub-speciality of Anaesthesiology in the developed world. BSA-CCPP has been trying to develop this sub-speciality under Anaesthesia department in Bangladesh."
The Premier hoped that the development of this pain sub-speciality will reduce the sufferings of the patients from chronic pain like pains of cancer patients.
"Successful control of pain is the principal aspect in medical treatment. In recent years, the advances of nanotechnology in pain management have been remarkable. Sometimes surgery can be avoidable for patients applying these newer techniques of interventional pain management," she added.
Sheikh Hasina said she is happy to know that BSA-CCPP and Centre for Disease Control of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) are going to jointly publish the "Guideline for Interventional Pain Management" in this conference.
Giving a brief description of her government measures for the overall development of the country's health sector, she said that Bangladesh has made remarkable progress in the health sector in recent times.
"At present, there are five medical universities and 116 medical colleges in the country. The number of government hospital beds has doubled during the last one decade. In the private sector, a good number of super-speciality hospitals have been established in the country," she said.
The Prime Minister said her government has established around 18,500 community clinics and union healthcare centres across the country to reach health services at the doorsteps of the people.
The poor people are being provided with 30 different types of medicine at free of cost, she said.