Saudi-funded floating hospitals to bring healthcare to rural Bangladesh

Saudi-funded floating hospitals to bring healthcare to rural Bangladesh

DHAKA: Five Saudi-funded floating hospitals will bring healthcare to tens of thousands of patients in remote areas of Bangladesh, with their operator expecting the first two vessels to be launched shortly after Ramadan.

Bangladesh occupies the world’s largest delta, and a third of the country is under water most of the time. Devastating storms often form over the Bay of Bengal and flood the country’s south, leaving many regions accessible only by river.

Few of these rural areas have medical facilities and the five hospital ships, all named after King Abdullah and funded by the Islamic Development Bank, will traverse the waterways of Bangladesh to provide healthcare to impoverished communities.

Under a 2017 agreement signed by the bank and the Bangladeshi Directorate General of Health Services, the floating hospitals will be initially operated by Friendship, an NGO that has been running hospital ships in Bangladesh for over two decades. After that, the vessels will be handed over to health authorities.

“It’s a tripartite project,” Dr. Sheikh Daud Adnan, head of hospitals at the health directorate, told Arab News.

“The project is for five years, and during this time the ships will run under the supervision of Friendship. After five years,