Bangladesh’s already fragile healthcare system has been pushed to the brink of collapse under the Yunus-led interim regime, which has abruptly cancelled all long-term operational plans for the health sector. With 38 essential programs suspended, corruption scandals engulfing senior officials, and unpaid health workers across the country, the nation’s medical infrastructure now faces its gravest crisis in decades – endangering millions of citizens and jeopardizing progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The health sector of Bangladesh has been the most neglected area since the Yunus-led interim regime took office last year. This neglect was evident in the chaotic handling of the Milestone School tragedy and the flawed lists of casualties during the Jamaat-backed Jihadist Coup.

Health Adviser Nurjahan Begum, a long-time associate of Muhammad Yunus, was rewarded with her post despite lacking credibility. She now faces mounting criticism for inaction, silence, and allegations of corruption through her private secretaries. Even senior figures of the Yunus-backed National Citizen Party (NCP) have publicly branded her as incompetent, accusing the chief adviser of blatant nepotism.

Despite corruption scandals involving her personal officers, a defiant Nurjahan continues to claim “success”, though the reality is a crumbling health sector. Experts warn that the disruption of services – spanning primary healthcare, vaccination programs, maternal and child care, family planning, medical education, and hospital management – has placed the entire system in disarray.

Health experts have expressed disappointment due to the disorderly situation. A wide range of services such as primary healthcare, disease control, hospital management, maternal and child care, medical education, vaccination programs, family planning, public awareness, infrastructure development, human resource management, and monitoring and evaluation are being disrupted.

The Department of Family Planning has failed to deliver essential medicines and contraceptives for over a year, leaving service recipients deprived at the grassroots level. In a move that has shocked health professionals, the interim government discontinued the country’s long-standing five-year operational plans (OPs) – 23 under the Health Care Department and 15 under the Health Education and Family Welfare Department – replacing them with an unrealistic two-year project model.

Since 1998, Bangladesh’s healthcare sector has relied on OPs to guide disease prevention, service delivery, and infrastructure development. Their abrupt cancellation has paralyzed health management for nearly 18 months, leaving about 25,000 health workers jobless or unpaid, including 3,855 field volunteers and 1,086 ANSAR security workers. Even emergency healthcare programs have been shut down.

Service recipients are experiencing deprivation at the service centers due to the shortage of birth control products and medicines at the field level.

Most shockingly, the interim government has decided to discontinue the five-yearly operational plans (OPs): 23 OPs of the Health Care Department and 15 of the Health Education and Family Welfare Department.

Recently, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has ordered the department to cancel the OP and formulate a two-year........

© Blitz