Wife of Dr Md Moyeen Uddin, the first physician in the country who died from coronavirus in April this year, has submitted an application demanding Tk 50 lakh as compensation from the government’s fund earmarked to pay compensation for frontline Covid-19 fighters.
Moyeen’s wife Dr Choudhury Rifat Jahan on Tuesday submitted the application to the health service division of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
The division on Wednesday forwarded the application along with a proposal for the compensation, signed by its Deputy Secretary Shamim Nasrin, to finance division under the finance ministry.
The Business Post has obtained a copy of the compensation proposal along with the application.
The proposal also carried a recommendation letter from Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College (SOMC) Principal Dr Md Moynul Haque that said Dr Moyeen had contracted the virus while treating coronavirus infected patients at the SOMC Hospital.
The government has already made an allocation of Tk500 crore in the revised budget of the current fiscal year to pay compensation for doctors, healthcare workers, and other frontline government officers and employees infected with -- or killed by -- Covid-19.
The finance ministry will allocate Tk800 crore in the upcoming budget for the same purpose.
An official of the finance division said they will only take into consideration applications of those who were involved in the frontline fight against coronavirus.
Earlier, on April 15 this year, Dr Moyeen Uddin, an assistant professor at the medicine department of SOMC, died from coronavirus while undergoing treatment at Kurmitola General Hospital in Dhaka.
Asked about the application for compensation submitted by health minister’s personal secretary Wahiduddin Rahman, the official said there is no ground on which the personal secretary can claim compensation from the fund allocated for Covid-19 front liners.
Wahiduddin was infected with Covid-19 early April, but the matter was kept secret by the health ministry for the reasons better known to them. He later recovered and applied for compensation to finance division last month.
Last month, the government announced that it would pay salaries for an additional two months as an incentive to doctors, nurses and technicians who are involved with the treatment of coronavirus patients.
In addition, if doctors and health professionals involved in the treatment of Covid-19 patients, and field administrators, government employees and members of law enforcement and security forces working to implement the government's guidelines to curb the spread of the virus, contract the virus, they will receive between Tk 5 lakh and Tk 10 lakh, depending on their pay scale, as compensation.
If they die because of the coronavirus, the government will pay them between Tk 25 lakh and Tk 50 lakh, depending on their pay scale, as compensation.
With the number of coronavirus cases mounting in Bangladesh, more doctors and healthcare professionals are getting infected with the virus.
More than 1,000 doctors have so far tested positive for coronavirus across the country and a total of 14 doctors have died from the virus, according to the Bangladesh Doctors Foundation (BDF), an organisation of physicians.
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