The students of ‘Introduction to Public Health’ and ‘Healthcare Project Planning and Financing’, under the Department of Public Health of American International University – Bangladesh (AIUB) visited different healthcare service provisions at the Upazila and below of the Government of Bangladesh on 20 April 2011. The purpose of the visit was to acquaint students with types of curative and preventive services, mechanism of delivering services, monitoring and assurance of quality of the services provided. After arriving at the Savar Upazila Health Complex (UHC), the students met Dr. Nikhil Kumar Saha, Upazila Health and Family Planning Officer (UH&FPO), Incharge of the Health Complex, Mr. Md. Gulam Azam, Upazila Family Planning Officer (UFPO) and Dr. Fatema Newaz, Medical Officer – Maternal and Child Health (MO-MCH), Government of Bangladesh. UH&FPO is responsible to the Directorate General of Health Services and UFPO and MO-MCH are responsible to the Directorate General of Family Planning, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of Bangladesh. The UFPO is entrusted with the general and administrative functions and the MO-MCH is responsible for the preventive and curative activities of the Family Planning Department at the Upazila and below. Upazila Health and Family Planning Officer gave a brief presentation on the preventive and curative care provided under his command and also he showed different service facilities at the UHC. Thereafter, the students went to the Office of the UFPO where MO-MCH was present. She gave a briefing on her activities. They gave a briefing about the functioning of Family Planning Department at the Upazila and below. In their briefing, they clearly mentioned that UFPO is responsible for general and Administrative issues and MO-MCH is responsible for technical aspects of the program. Then the students visited a Community Clinic, a village level service Centre and found that a Family Welfare Assistant (FWA), a grass root level family planning worker is providing services to a mother. Thereafter, they visited the Union Health and Family Welfare Centre (UH&FWC) where a Graduate Doctor, two paramedics, and an Aya were providing services at the Clinic level. The Paramedics also go to the village to organize Satellite Clinic two days a week. The Centre has the facility of conducting normal delivery. The Officials, who accepted our students very warmly, were very cordial in describing their activities. The students were accompanied by an Adjunct Faculty of the Department of Public Health - Mr. Mahidul Islam and Program Officer of the Department, Dr. Aurangzeb Aaru.
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