A total of 2,605 posts against 5,589 approved ones are now vacant in the government medical colleges in the country, said Health and Family Welfare Minister Zahid Maleque on Sunday.
The number is 46.6% of the approved posts.
He said this while replying to a question from Awami League MP Kazim Uddin Ahmed in Parliament.
The Minister said 1,369 people are working as attached.
He said teachers are not appointed directly in the medical colleges. The medical officers are appointed at the post of lecturer at the medical colleges.
In reply to another question of AL lawmaker Didarul Alam, the Health Minister said about twice the number of patients now receive treatment at the 2600-bed Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
Therefore, patients and relatives of the hospital have some difficulty in staying and receiving treatment at this hospital, said Zahid Maleque.
However the government has plans to raise the beds of DMCH to five thousand to ensure the treatment of patients.
Responding to another question from Workers Party MP Lutfun Nesa Khan, the Health Minister said the number of detected HIV patients is currently 9708 in the country. Of these, 6,075 are under treatment.
He said 1,820 HIV patients died in the country.
Responding to the question of AL lawmaker M Abdul Latif, the Minister said that 10-12 percent of Bangladeshi people are carriers of Thalassemia and hemoglobin E disease. At present, the number of thalassemia patients in the country is about 90,000, he said.
