The government is taking an initiative to build a floating hospital, ‘Shastho Tori’, to bring modern healthcare services to the doorsteps of marginalised communities living in remote coastal, island and char areas of the country.

State Minister for Health and Family Welfare Dr MA Muhit disclosed this while speaking to journalists after inspecting the plan for the floating hospital beneath the Babubazar Bridge in the capital on Friday afternoon. State Minister for Shipping Md Razib Ahsan was also present with him.

The two state ministers inspected the vessel and discussed its suitability for providing healthcare services and various aspects of its proposed operations.

“To deliver quality medical services to people in coastal, island and char areas, the health ministry and the shipping ministry have jointly planned to launch a floating hospital, or Shastho Tori,” said Muhit.

He said the initiative would make it possible to provide modern treatment and surgical services for complex but commonly occurring diseases in 30 to 40 remote upazilas across at least four to five districts in the southern region.

Emphasising the optimal use of government resources, he said there had been some successful examples of small-scale floating hospitals through private initiatives in the past.

“But if an integrated water-based healthcare system can be developed under government management by effectively coordinating the existing limited resources and facilities of shipping and health ministries, it could play a transformative role for coastal communities,” he said.

He said there is significant demand in rural areas for important services such as women’s healthcare, safe childbirth and postnatal care through midwives, child healthcare, general orthopaedic or bone surgery, and cataract operations. These services will be delivered to marginalised communities through the vessel by forming teams of specialist doctors, he said.

Razib Ahsan said, “It has been our long-standing plan to provide healthcare through alternative means to disadvantaged people living in the remote char areas of Barisal, Noakhali, Bhola, Patuakhali and Barguna.”

“In particular, our primary goal is to ensure healthcare at the doorsteps of people in remote communities who, despite needing treatment, are unable to travel to district hospitals or Dhaka,” he said.