The High Court today asked the government to monitor the hospitals to make it sure that they do not charge extra to test for dengue fever.
The bench of Justice FRM Nazmul Ahasan and Justice KM Kamrul Kader passed the order on Tuesday a day after the government set a maximum charge for private hospitals to test dengue fever.
In a suo moto move, it also asked the director general of the directorate of health services to submit a report before it in this regard on Thursday.
The court said it will pass further order after receiving the report on that day.
According to local media reports, the government yesterday set charges of dengue tests at a maximum of Tk 500 while it is without charge at government hospitals.
Today's orders came after deputy attorney general ABM Abdullah-Al Mahmud Bashar and Supreme Court lawyer Moshtaq Ahmed Chowdhury informed the court of the government-set maximum charge for dengue testing.
Recently, the High Court asked the authorities to inform it whether the government hospitals were conducting dengue tests for free and the private hospitals were charging extra amid the outbreak.
The hospitals in Dhaka have been struggling to deal with record number of dengue patients, the number of which neared 12000 so far this year with at least 25 fatal cases, unofficial accounts show.