DGHS: Regent Hospital Deal Signed on Ministry’s Order

The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) has said that an agreement has been reached between it and Regent Hospital for the treatment of patients with Covid-19 on the orders of the Ministry of Health.

In a statement on Saturday, it claimed that its Director General, Abul Kalam Azad, did not know the Chairman of Regent Hospital, Md Shahed, prior to the signing of the contract.

On expired licences of the Uttara and Mirpur branches of the hospital, the DGHS said that the March 21 agreement was signed on the condition of renewing those.

“Before the agreement, the DGHS DG had never met Shahed,” reads the statement by its Assistant Director Md Jahangir Kabir.

However, inputs from intelligence agencies pointed at misconduct by the hospital, it said before adding the July 6 raid by the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) in presence of DGHS officials were conducted based on those reports.

The DGHS claimed that it was “deceived while doing good”.

Law-enforcement agencies have launched a manhunt for Shahed after it appeared that his hospitals swindled thousands of unsuspecting patients out of millions on the pretext of coronavirus treatment.

RAB has already sealed off the two branches of Regent Hospital. It also started a case against 17 people, including Shahed, on charges of issuing fake Covid-19 test reports and other irregularities.

The statement also referred to the topic of JKG Healthcare, a dubious outfit that trained volunteers to gather samples for the Covid-19 test.

Ariful Chowdhury, Chief Coordinator of JKG, operates the Oval Group, an event management company that operated with the Ministry of Health in 2018, she said.

After the Covid-19 pandemic unfolded, Ariful proposed the DGHS to train volunteers and set up sample collecting booths.

According to the DGHS statement, the proposal looked good and earned its node at a time when it was essential for the country to expand its testing capacity.

Following the arrest of Ariful for his suspected role in a fake test result scam, the DGHS revoked the authorisation granted to JKG Healthcare on 24 June.