BANGLADESH

The health minister on Saturday warned demonstrators who have stood against a government move to turn the Dhaka Medical College into a university.

AFM Ruhal Haque said the government's move was right and any effort to disrupt that effort would be handled 'very seriously'.

The government move has sparked protest in the country's oldest medical college and hospital campus and also on social networking site Facebook.

"They will not be able to do so (protest)," he said, as he believed 'a quarter is active to embarrass the government by propagating misconceptions.'

The minister, however, did not say what sort of action would be taken against the protestors.

He made the statement as he opened a scientific seminar in the city.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Jan 17 at a function said the government was going to upgrade Dhaka Medical College to a university amid protest.

Grade III and IV employees at DMCH have long been protesting against such any move while some doctors and students recently voiced their concern.

A Facebook post argues 'it would shrink the opportunities of poor people's treatment as it happened in Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, which was upgraded from a post-graduate institute in 1998.'

In Facebook post they also say the government move would disrupt the emergency services of the hospital.

The health minister opening a gastroenterologists' scientific seminar in the capital on Saturday said, "They don't have any idea."

Terming Dhaka Medical College Hospital's emergency services 'best' in the country, he said "Who is that mad in the government to disrupt this system?"

Earlier, the prime minister had said: "Some are protesting (against the move) due to their ignorance."

"Similar protests were seen when we turned PG Hospital into Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University," she said. "But I did not hear anyone facing any difficulty later on."

"Instead, people are getting modern treatment (from the university)," she claimed.

Pro-government doctors have been demanding more medical universities for quite some time in different discussions pointing to the fact that other disciplines like agriculture have many universities.

The minister at different functions of Dhaka Medical College in 2011 had asked them to demand more medical universities.

Experts on medical education suggested quality assurance of medical colleges under a single autonomous authority could be a better option in Bangladesh where doctors had already earned a bad name for not staying at rural facilities.