'Coordinated efforts can help avert covid disaster'

News Desk: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has commented that collective and timely efforts of the government and concerned stakeholders can save many lives from the Covid-19 pandemic and avert a possible disaster. He further said, “Bangladesh has successfully tackled the Covid-19 pandemic and has been able to save many lives. Considering the density of the population, many feared that a large number of people would die from the epidemic. But concerted and timely efforts by the government and stakeholders can avert a potential disaster.” The prime minister said these things in a pre-recorded speech broadcast at the 'Second International Conference on Pain-2022 and Seventh International Conference on Recent Advances in Pain-2022' organized by the Bangladesh Society of Anesthesiologists Critical Care and Pain Physicians in the capital Dhaka on Saturday (September 10). The Prime Minister said, "BSA-CCPP deserves appreciation for issuing 'National Guidelines for Critically Ill Covid-19 Patients' as well as 'Guidelines for Rational Use of Oxygen'." Sheikh Hasina said, "During the Covid-19 pandemic, we have appointed 409 junior consultants, 2,000 doctors and 5,000 nurses in anesthesia on an emergency basis to deal with the situation." The Prime Minister said he hoped the conference would provide a platform to share the latest research information and techniques and help form a forum for international researchers from various fields of pain, pain medicine, assessment tools and pain management. Sheikh Hasina congratulated the Bangladesh Society of Anesthesiologists Critical Care and Pain Physicians-BSA-CCPP for organizing this important conference and welcomed the participants from home and abroad. Mentioning that people suffer from pain for various reasons, he said, “We want immediate relief whether the pain is acute or chronic. Pain medicine has become a very important subspecialty of anesthesiology in the developed world. BSA-CCPP is trying to create this sub-specialty under the Department of Anesthesia in Bangladesh.” The Prime Minister hoped that the development of this pain sub-specialty would reduce the suffering of patients from chronic pain such as cancer patients. Sheikh Hasina further said, “Successful control of pain is the main aspect of treatment. Advances in nanotechnology in pain management have been remarkable in recent years. Surgery can sometimes be avoided for patients using these new techniques of interventional pain management.” The Prime Minister said that he was happy to know that BSA-CCPP and the Center for Disease Control of Health Services Directorate General are going to jointly release the 'Guidelines on Interventional Pain Management' at the conference. Summarizing the steps taken by his government in the overall development of the country's health sector, he said that Bangladesh has made significant progress in the health sector in recent times. The Prime Minister said, "Currently there are 5 medical universities and 116 medical colleges in the country. The number of beds in government hospitals has doubled in the last decade. In the private sector, many super-specialty hospitals have been established in the country.” Sheikh Hasina said that her government has established around 18,500 community clinics and union health care centers across the country to bring healthcare to the doorsteps of the people. 30 different types of medicines are being given free to poor people.