Bangladesh Health Minister Mohammad Nasim yesterday said the government will set up a burn and plastic surgery institute at Chankharpool in Dhaka which will be named after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
The prime minister will lay the foundation stone of the institute, the first of its kind in Bangladesh, in the first week of March, Nasim told
reporters.
Besides, the minister said, a process is underway to have permission from the Bangabandhu Trust over naming the institute after
Sheikh Hasina.
Officials of the health ministry said the proposed project will cost the 5.22bn taka.
Once set up, the institute would be the largest of its kind not only in South Asia but also in the world, Dr Samanta Lal Sen, chief coordinator of the burn units across the country, said, adding that one of its main aims would be to prepare burn specialists and plastic surgeons of international standards.
He said currently there are just 52 plastic surgeons for around 600,000 burn victims across Bangladesh.
Initially, the institute would be able to produce 10 to 12 doctors every year, with Master of Science in Plastic Surgery qualification. The doctors will be posted at burn units in every district hospital.
At present, Bangladesh gets just two expert plastic surgeons a year, Sen said, adding that the National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital will continue to function as a burn unit after the project implementation.
Project sources said the institute will also train nurses, paramedics, physiotherapists and staff specialised in dressings.
It would have 500 beds, including 50 for the intensive care unit, 12 operating theatres (four each for the burn, emergency and plastic surgery units), and equipment such as burn tanks, added the sources.
Prof Dr Abul Kalam, director of the project, said the approved money would initially be spent to build a 10-storey building in two years. Later, the building would have five more upper floors, he added.