Chattogram Maa-O-Shishu Hospital, with the support of the international donor Direct Relief, handed over medicines worth around Tk 3 crore on Tuesday for the free treatment of poor and destitute patients.

About Tk 2 crore worth went to Chattogram Medical College Hospital (CMCH), and about Tk 1 crore worth to the Chattogram City Corporation’s (CCC) charitable dispensaries and urban health clinics. The handovers took place at separate ceremonies.

CCC Administrator Dr Shahadat Hossain, who is also chairman of the CMCH management committee, said the US-made medicines would be distributed free of charge, on doctors’ advice, across the corporation’s 57 health centres in phases. He commended the hospital’s role during the Covid-19 pandemic and the current dengue outbreak, and pledged the corporation’s support for its development.

Syed Mohammad Morshed Hossain, president of the hospital’s executive committee, said this was only the initial consignment and that larger shipments would follow.