News Desk :
Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST), a rights organisation, on Wednesday served a legal notice to the government requesting it to take necessary steps to ensure treatment of Covid-19 patients at all hospitals and clinics across the country.
Barrister Rashna Imam sent the notice to the health secretary and the director general of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) asking them to enforce the relevant DGHS directives issued on May 11 and 24.
The directives said that Covid-19 patients cannot be denied treatment at any hospitals.
Rashna Imam told the media that the respondents have been given seven days to strictly enforce the directives across the country.
“A writ petition will be moved before the High Court for necessary directives if the respondents don’t take the necessary measures in seven days,” the lawyer added.
In the legal notice, BLAST said it had noticed in different news reports that certain private hospitals and clinics refused to treat patients without Covid-19 test results.
In the May DGHS directives, it said all private and government hospitals must have separate arrangements for treating suspected Covid-19 patients and private hospitals and clinics cannot refuse treatment to patients, Covid-19 or otherwise, if they have the requisite facilities/equipment, the organisation said in the legal notice.
It said if a private hospital or clinic does not have the requisite facilities/equipment to treat a patient, then it may refer the patients to another hospital in consultation with the Covid-19 hospital control room of DGHS.
Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST), a rights organisation, on Wednesday served a legal notice to the government requesting it to take necessary steps to ensure treatment of Covid-19 patients at all hospitals and clinics across the country.
Barrister Rashna Imam sent the notice to the health secretary and the director general of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) asking them to enforce the relevant DGHS directives issued on May 11 and 24.
The directives said that Covid-19 patients cannot be denied treatment at any hospitals.
Rashna Imam told the media that the respondents have been given seven days to strictly enforce the directives across the country.
“A writ petition will be moved before the High Court for necessary directives if the respondents don’t take the necessary measures in seven days,” the lawyer added.
In the legal notice, BLAST said it had noticed in different news reports that certain private hospitals and clinics refused to treat patients without Covid-19 test results.
In the May DGHS directives, it said all private and government hospitals must have separate arrangements for treating suspected Covid-19 patients and private hospitals and clinics cannot refuse treatment to patients, Covid-19 or otherwise, if they have the requisite facilities/equipment, the organisation said in the legal notice.
It said if a private hospital or clinic does not have the requisite facilities/equipment to treat a patient, then it may refer the patients to another hospital in consultation with the Covid-19 hospital control room of DGHS.
