Health Minister Dr Samanta Lal Sen yesterday said the construction works of a 150-bed specialised Burn and Plastic Surgery Unit at Chittagong Medical College Hospital will start from September.

The prime minister is likely to lay the foundation stone of the project after returning from her visit to China, he said while briefing reporters.

Of the Tk 284.76 crore project, the Chinese government will fund Tk 179.83 crore as grants and the Bangladesh government will fund the rest.

Later, the health minister held a views-exchange with doctors and officials of CMCH.

The minister said, "I feel bad knowing that the MRI machine in the hospital is out of order. Chattogram is the second largest city after Dhaka. I will do whatever is necessary to fix the problem."

The minister said despite the availability of quality medical services in the country, people go abroad for treatment.

"Our prime minister receives treatment in the country… If the members of parliament use local hospitals for checkups, then the quality of treatment in the hospitals will improve and people's confidence in our treatment will return," he added.

The minister arrived in the port city on Friday and made unscheduled visits to a number of hospitals. He expressed dissatisfaction over different irregularities in some of those and asked DGHS officials to take action.

At another programme of cardiologists at a city hotel on Friday evening, the minister said a Health Safety Act would be placed in the parliament soon.

He said no one has the right to say "wrong treatment" except the Bangladesh Medical and Dental Council (BMDC).

If anyone wants to lodge any complaint over wrong treatment, he will have to apply to BMDC, he added.

Samanta said whenever a doctor is posted to an upazila health complex, she or he starts lobbying to cancel the order. "The doctors will have to work in rural and suburban areas," he said.

"We are taking initiatives to improve the residence facilities of doctors there," he added.