More engineers than doctors in country

Staff Correspondent: Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) survey revealed the country’s fragile health care system. In the publication entitled Census 2022, the organization has shown that the number of doctors and dentists in the country is only 179,160 people. And the population of the country is 16 crore 98 lakh 28 thousand 911. That is 1.05 doctors for every one thousand people. But there are 222,196 people with BSc engineering degree or above in the country. That is, there are 1.31 engineers for every thousand.
How fragile the health system of the country was, it was seen during the corona infection. Especially in 2020 and 2021 when the corona infection reached its peak, the hospital could not accommodate patients. Many patients have died in the country due to ICU crisis and lack of oxygen.

Not only during the Corona period, but also during other normal times, various questions have been raised about the quality of treatment in the country. Due to lack of necessary doctors and equipment, proper treatment cannot be given in hospitals or health care complexes at the district-upazila level. Patients have to go to Dhaka for treatment of any complex disease.
This is not the end, the sad picture of the health care of the country. Many are going out of the country without getting proper treatment or not having confidence in the country’s medical system. A large part of the country’s population is undergoing treatment at various hospitals in neighboring countries of India every year. And wealthy people are going to Singapore, Thailand or Malaysia for medical care.
Although there are relatively few doctors in the whole country, the number is even less in the rural areas. There are only 39,103 doctors and dentists in rural areas of the country. But the population of rural areas of the country is 11 crore 60 lakh 65 thousand 804. That is, there is one doctor and dentist against every three thousand in Palli area. And there are 60,282 engineers in rural areas. That is, there is one engineer for every two thousand.
Meanwhile, the population of urban areas of the country is 50 million 37 lakh 63 thousand 107 people. For them there are 1 lakh 40 thousand 57 doctors and dentists and 1 lakh 61 thousand 814 engineers. In other words, there are 2.61 doctors and dentists and 3 engineers for every 1,000 in urban areas. As can be seen, there are seven and a half times more doctors and five and a half times more engineers in urban areas than in rural areas.
Although the mentality of doctors not to work in rural areas has been criticized many times by the health minister Zaheed Malek. He even threatened punishment several times for the tendency of doctors to be transferred from villages to cities and for lobbying. Even then doctors cannot be sent to villages.
According to BBS data, Dhaka Division has the largest number of doctors and dentists in the whole country. The number of doctors and dentists in this department is 93,424 people. That is, more than half of the doctors/dentists in the whole country are in Dhaka Division. Same goes for image engineers. The number of engineers in Dhaka division is one lakh 20 thousand 12 people. That is, 52 percent of total doctors/dentists and 54 percent of engineers are in Dhaka division.
Although more than 88 percent of total doctors and dentists of Dhaka Division are in urban areas. And rural areas have only 11.76 percent. There are only 10 thousand 988 doctors and dentists in the rural areas of this division and 82 thousand 436 in the city. On the other hand, there are 18 thousand 15 engineers in the rural area of Dhaka division and 1 lakh 1 thousand 997 in the urban area.
From the point of view of two types of professionals, then the position of Chittagong division. In this department there are 28 thousand 80 doctors/dentists and 33 thousand 375 engineers. 12 thousand 319 doctors/dentists and 15 thousand 240 engineers in Khulna division which are in the third position. And in Rangpur division there are 10 thousand 80 doctors/dentists and 11 thousand 865 engineers.
Meanwhile, in Mymensingh division there are 7 thousand 599 doctors/dentists and 8 thousand 673 engineers. There are 5 thousand 540 doctors/dentists and 7 thousand 682 engineers in Barisal division. Rajshahi division has the least number of doctors/dentists and engineers. The number of doctors/dentists in this department is 4 thousand 953 and engineers 5 thousand 49.