6 newborns died from negligence at Ad-din Hospital, BD health minister tells parliament

Six newborns died at Ad-din Hospital because of an oxygen shortage and extreme negligence, Health and Family Welfare Minister Sardar Md. Sakhawat Husain told Bangladesh’s parliament on Sunday during the general discussion on the proposed 2026-27 budget. He said there was no oxygen at the hospital and no doctor came while the babies were struggling to survive.

Responding sharply to opposition criticism over the suspension of the hospital’s licence, the minister said the government had not decided to shut the hospital, but had suspended its licence in the interest of discipline.

Sakhawat Husain said, “When six babies were crying and struggling to survive, with their hands and feet stretched out, the authorities switched off the air-conditioning in that hypercapnia situation. There were no windows in the room, there was no oxygen. Sixteen to 17 people, mothers crying, running around; not a single doctor came. Those babies died struggling because of carbon dioxide.”

Addressing opposition lawmakers, the minister said they had referred to the fire incidents at United Hospital during the Covid period and at the burn unit. “I agree with them, those were accidents, caused by electricity. But in the incident at Ad-din, none of you went there. Today you speak in parliament,” he said.

Sakhawat Husain alleged that the hospital owner did not even go to see the situation after the incident. He said he himself visited the next day and that doctors had admitted negligence to him.

Defending the decision to suspend Ad-din Hospital’s licence, the minister said many lawmakers had pointed out that dialysis was available there for Tk 200 to Tk 250. “True. But can you cut off the head for a headache? No, you cannot,” he said. “We suspended the licence; we did not decide to close the hospital. Why do you merge every issue with your party ideology? You cannot oppose the country through party ideology.”

Describing what he called severe disorder inside the hospital, the minister said a bakery factory had been set up on one of the six floors covered by the hospital’s approval. He said the smell was unbearable and that piles of plastic waste created such a fire risk that neither patients nor guardians would survive if a blaze broke out.

He also said that, because of the owner’s negligence and stubbornness, the board had been changed and the owner’s wife had been made chief executive.

“The government cannot sit idle in this situation,” the minister said. “We want to bring all hospitals under discipline. Bangladesh comes first, the country’s 180 million people come first. The government must protect the value of people’s health and lives.”

Calling himself a freedom fighter, he added: “I must die for my nation. I am the health minister appointed by my prime minister. My children will die without treatment — that can’t be.”

Earlier in his speech on the proposed budget, Sakhawat Husain said the budget was not only about numbers but also important in qualitative terms. He said special attention had been given to reducing treatment costs for poor people, including lowering the costs of cancer care and kidney dialysis and reducing people’s out-of-pocket medical expenses.

He also referred to the prime minister’s special programme for primary school students to help tackle climate pollution, saying the prime minister had announced: “One child, one tree.” He said every primary school child would plant a sapling in their yard or school grounds to improve the future environment.

Ad-din Hospital is owned by the non-profit charitable organisation Ad-din Foundation. The foundation’s founder and chairman is Sheikh Mohiuddin, the eldest son of the late Sheikh Akij Uddin, founder of Akij Group.