We commend the recently appointed Bangladesh Medical University (BMU) Vice-Chancellor Dr FM Siddiqui for committing to fully operationalise the university’s super-specialised facility within six months. The 750-bed hospital, built at the cost of Tk 1,868 crore in 2022, has almost turned into a white elephant. The world-class facility, capable of providing stem cell therapy, gene therapy, and robotic operations, sits idle due to a manpower shortage, while the government continues to pay back the Tk 1,047 crore loan taken from South Korea to complete the project. In this context, the VC’s announcement to recruit specialised doctors at competitive salaries for the hospital appears hopeful.

The facility requires over 1,000 personnel, including doctors, nurses, medical technicians, and support staff. By June 7, 2023, it recruited only 250 people. Due to allegations of corruption, the recruitment process was halted during the Awami League’s tenure. According to a 2024 New Age report, 157 hospital employees were sent to South Korea for training for two to four months using hospital funds, but a majority of the doctors and other medical professionals did not report back after completing their training. Several probe committees were formed as a result. During the interim government, the recruitment of 544 doctors, nurses, and other medical staff was scrapped as the committees found evidence of irregularities. Such a past allows only tempered optimism about the future hiring process.

Thus, we urge the BMU VC to ensure that the recruitment process at the super-specialised hospital remains transparent from the very beginning. Nepotism or partisanship must be avoided at all costs. Anticipating that offering the specialised doctors salaries higher than the existing government pay scale may elicit ire in other public hospitals, the VC must handle this issue carefully. However, the focus should not just be on doctor recruitment. If the specialised facility is to provide healthcare services to 5,000 patients daily, as originally envisioned, it must also ensure international standards in the quality of support provided by the hospital’s nurses and other medical staff. Properly trained technicians are also required to operate and maintain the state-of-the-art medical equipment at this hospital.

While it remains to be seen whether this facility will actually begin providing the envisioned care in the next six months, one issue we urge the government to avoid is building healthcare facilities without a fully approved operational plan, including staffing, budgeting, and management frameworks. A country under fiscal strain cannot afford white elephants in its healthcare sector.