Health Minister Mohammed Nasim today said the government will recruit 10,000 doctors and will post them at different districts and upazilas before the upcoming parliamentary elections.

“Five thousand doctors will be recruited in two to three months and the other five thousand before the elections this year,” Nasim said this while addressing a meet the press in Dhaka.

The recruitment of 10,000 physicians has already been completed and there will be no shortage of doctors in the rural areas, the minister said at the programme jointly organised by Bangladesh Health Reporters Forum (BHRF) and Bangladesh Medical Association (BMA).

The Awami League-led government recruited 13,665 doctors since 2009, but there are allegations that the doctors posted in the rural areas often get transfers to the urban areas, especially in the Dhaka division.

Doctors either come to the capital for higher education on deputation or get transfers and work in the city hospitals on attachments, allegedly using their political links, though there are not so many posts in the city.

Asked about it, Nasim said the government, in the past, gave options that doctors could be posted to their respective home districts and if husband and wife both are physicians, they could be posted in the same district.

“But, if they come to Dhaka for higher education, we cannot stop them,” Nasim told the reporters.

The health minister also said that the government will recruit 40,000 third and fourth class employees at the public hospitals by this year to ensure cleanliness of the hospitals.