The three-day second international symposium on community health workers (CHWs) that began in the city on Friday demonstrated that interventions from CHWs could lead to less emergency department visits and less hospitalisation, thus reducing healthcare costs.
Professor Dr Syed Modasser Ali, the Community Clinic Health Support Trust Chairman at the Ministry of Health and
Family Welfare, officially inaugurated the international symposium.
icddr,b in collaboration with the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), government of Bangladesh; BRAC James P Grant School of Public Health (JPGSPH) and Save the Children, Bangladesh are jointly organising the symposium that will continue until November 24.
Scientist and Project Director, SHARE Project, Health Systems and Population Studies Division at icddr,b Dr Iqbal Anwar delivered the welcome speech while the keynote speech titled “Primary Health Care 2.0: from Alma-Ata to Astana” was given by Dr Rory Nefdt, Senior Advisor, UNICEF, USA.
Modasser Ali welcomed the participants to Bangladesh and said community health workers have an outstanding history of providing vaccination, essential health service package and family planning services in Bangladesh.
He said a recent addition to take the primary healthcare to the doorsteps of the rural population is ‘community clinic’, which is a brain child of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
“Community clinic is now serving 50 million rural people of Bangladesh, which is indeed exemplary for other developing countries,” he said.
