The health directorate is swamped with applications for fresh licence and renewal of private care-giving facilities following rounds of a countrywide crackdown on unauthorised health centres, officials said.
To avoid unnecessary delays in exhausting formalities, the directorate has asked the officials concerned to finish the process in quickest possible time through proper review.
DGHS sources said the directorate received some 4,000 applications for renewal and 2,500 for fresh licence in the past four months from May to August.
And the flow of application keeps rising.
"Yes, the pressure of applications for licence and renewal is quite high now as the recent crackdown on unlicensed hospitals, clinics and diagnostic centres forced non-compliant facilities to get registered," said a DGHS official preferring anonymity.
He said around 300 applications on average have been submitted daily during the period in question, which is much higher than normal.
The DGHS recently found instances that some applicants have been using their application papers to run the business, which is very concerning, the official cited.
"We found a facility close to the office of Dhaka civil surgeon. So, we're reviewing each application very carefully so that nobody can operate just after submitting their application."
Another DGHS official said the recent crackdown on the non-compliant healthcare facilities was not to shut the centres but to bring them under accountability.
The drive sent a wave of fears among the errant healthcare facilities, which is reflected in their mad rush with applications, he explained.
He said each application online needs some eight documents to get a licence. After that, civil surgeons and other officials concerned will inspect the units before issuing a licence.
According to him, some 2,500 healthcare facilities were shut across the country in two rounds of the crackdown. Of them, 1,641 were in the first phase.
Last year, divisional directors compiled a list of unlicensed facilities, with 3,535 in Dhaka division, 2,232 in Chattogram, 1,523 in Khulna, 1,438 in Rajshahi, 1,099 in Rangpur, 963 in Mymensingh, 603 in Barishal and 546 in Sylhet.
Medical scholars believe such periodic crackdown with announcement will bring no expected outcome as the unruly entrepreneurs, who treat healthcare as a 'commodity', come back at an opportune time.
They suggest that the government focus more on regular monitoring through manning the directorate.
Bangladesh Medical Association secretary-general Dr Md Ehteshamul Huq Choudhury appreciates the move, saying such action should have been taken much earlier.
"The DGHS lacks enough manpower to continue such activity round the year to ensure compliance by both public and private facilities," he told the FE.
About the Medical Practice and Private Clinics and Laboratories (Regulation) Ordinance, Dr Choudhury said it needs to be rationalised.
"The ordinance stipulates that one doctor and three diploma nurses are needed for a 10-bed hospital, but where do we get too many diploma nurses for too many hospitals?"
On the other hand, each diagnostic unit must have a full-time radiologist and a pathologist, but the reality is different. Public hospitals have failed to recruit them.
"So, we need to update it. We can allow part-time professionals for a certain period unless we produce enough professionals," observed the BMA secretary.
Dhaka Community Hospital Trust chairman Prof Quazi Quamruzzaman called for decentralizing the entire system through empowering divisional and district units for regular monitoring.
There are many people who treat healthcare as a commodity and the regulator in most cases cannot monitor mainly for lack of adequate manpower, he lamented the fact.
"This causes the problem," mentioned Prof Quamruzzaman.
This cannot be redressed by periodic drives only. Regular inspection is imperative, he asserted.
