12,543 private hospitals, clinics applied for licence renewal: DGHS

The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) today informed the High Court that a total of 12,543 private hospitals, clinics and diagnostic centres have applied to the government for renewal of licences.

The government has lists of licenced private hospitals, clinics and diagnostic centres but it has no lists of those which have no licence, the DGHS said in a statement submitted to the HC during hearing a writ petition today.

Deputy Attorney General Amit Dasgupta placed the DGHS statement before the HC bench of Justice Tariq ul Hakim and Justice SM Kuddus Zaman during a virtual hearing on the petition filed by a rights organisation, Children's Charity Bangladesh Foundation seeking necessary orders.

In the statement, DGHS said the health ministry has published information about the numbers of Covid-19 hospitals and non-Covid-19 hospitals on its official website.

However, the HC bench today refused to continue hearing the petition and to pass any order on the issue.

The bench dropped the petition from its cause list as the petitioner's lawyers Md Abdul Halim and Ishrat Hasan and Deputy Attorney General Amit Dasgupta locked into arguments over publishing relevant information on the health ministry website.

Then, the HC bench said the petitioner will have liberty to move the same petition before any other bench.

On August 31, the HC asked the authorities concerned of the government to inform the court on September 2 (today) how many private hospitals have licences and how many private hospitals do not.