Bangladesh needs nearly 89,000 doctors to meet WHO standards: Health minister

Health Minister Sardar Md Sakhawat Husain today said 11,495 of the 41,806 approved posts for doctors in government hospitals are vacant.

Of the approved posts, 30,311 are currently filled, he said, adding that the government is continuing recruitment drives to gradually fill the vacancies and create new posts as needed to ensure accessible, quality, and people-friendly healthcare.

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Responding to a question from MP Md Mosharaf Hossain during today's question-answer session at the parliament, Sakhawat said in a written reply that Bangladesh needs about 88,909 doctors to meet the World Health Organization’s minimum standards, according to government-funded research.

In reply to Md Jahandar Ali Mia MP, the minister said the country has 37 government medical colleges with 5,100 seats, while 68 private medical colleges offer 6,278 seats. Government hospitals have 71,660 approved beds, he added.

Answering a question from Selimuzzaman MP, the minister acknowledged that political unrest in 2024 and the cancellation of a supplementary measles-rubella campaign in 2025 led to a sharp decline in routine immunisation coverage.

This resulted in severe measles outbreaks among children and in Rohingya camps, he said.

He added that measles vaccines were not procured during the interim government, while a nationwide shortage later emerged due to changes in procurement policy, bureaucratic delays and disregard of warnings from UNICEF.