The tag amenity=hospital in Dhaka’s OpenStreetMap data cannot tell you whether a place has a 24-hour emergency department, so name keywords have to do most of the work. In a live Overpass snapshot of greater Dhaka (taken 21-22 Oct 2026), 482 elements carry a hospital tag, but only 42 carry any emergency=* value, none carry beds, and the set includes diagnostic centres, doctors’ chambers, pharmacies, dental and veterinary practices. Several of the 37 emergency=yes records are a homeopathic pharmacy, two dental clinics and an outpatient block (Overpass API). The best approach is a layered classifier. First, drop non-hospital service words (diagnostic, chamber, pharmacy, homeo, dental, physio, vet). Second, promote government tiers that reliably run round-the-clock emergency care (Medical College Hospital, General Hospital, Upazila Health Complex). Third, label specialised institutes (eye, trauma, child, burn, heart) as “specialised-only”. Fourth, treat ordinary private “Hospital” and “Clinic” names as “likely”, with low confidence, because Bangladeshi law puts them in the same category and enforcement drives keep finding emergency units that exist “only in name” (Dhaka Tribune). Strong sources confirm 24-hour emergency service at only a few Dhaka facilities: Dhaka Medical College Hospital, Bangladesh Medical University (formerly BSMMU), NITOR, the National Institute of Ophthalmology and Evercare. Many others are near-certain in practice but rest on weak sources. For hotlines, 999 is the number to feature. 102 has replaced 16163 for the fire service. The DGHS doctor-advice line 16263 faced a funding shutdown in early 2026, and no source shows what happened after that.
The global convention is clear. amenity=hospital means “a hospital providing in-patient medical treatment”. Outpatient centres with roughly ten or more staff belong under amenity=clinic, and small practices under amenity=doctors (OSM wiki: amenity=hospital; OSM wiki: amenity=clinic). healthcare=hospital is an intended duplicate. A proposed migration to it is still disputed, so consumers must read both keys. Labs, imaging, sample collection, pharmacies, physiotherapists, blood banks, dialysis and rehabilitation all have their own healthcare=* values (OSM wiki: Key:healthcare). Four optional attributes bear directly on emergency triage. emergency=yes on a hospital means it is “equipped to deal with emergencies” (OSM wiki: Key:emergency). The hospital page asks mappers to add yes or no if known, and to mark the ward door with an emergency=emergency_ward_entrance node. Second, healthcare:speciality takes semicolon-separated British-spelling values such as emergency, trauma, paediatrics, ophthalmology and cardiology. The wiki documents no burns or general dentistry value (OSM wiki: healthcare:speciality). Third, beds is an integer count (OSM wiki: Key:beds). Fourth, operator:type distinguishes private, public, government, ngo, religious and similar values, though the wiki itself calls the public/government split “confusingly defined” (OSM wiki: operator:type).
Dhaka’s data falls far short of this. The Overpass snapshot covered the bbox 23.65,90.30 to 23.92,90.52 (Keraniganj to Uttara). It returned 482 elements: 478 with amenity=hospital, 316 with healthcare=hospital (312 with both), 30 with no name at all, 0 with beds, 15 with operator:type, 19 with healthcare:speciality, and 14 with opening_hours=24/7 (Overpass API). That leaves about 91% of hospital records with no emergency information. The emergency tag that does exist is noisy. Genuine emergency hospitals carry emergency=yes: Dhaka Medical College Hospital, Mugda Medical College Hospital, Square, Dhaka Shishu, Ibn Sina, Labaid Cardiac and Farazy. So do “Meherun Homeo Pharmacy”, “Tooth Fairy”, “Sazzad’s Amazing Dental”, “Aalok Diagnostic Center” and “PG Outdoor”, which is an outpatient unit. The five emergency=no records look more trustworthy: they include a TB hospital and Prime Bank Eye Hospital. Al Razi Hospital Complex is also among them, which is surprising and should be checked.
Pollution is the larger problem. Among names under amenity=hospital there are 22 containing “diagnos”, 10 doctors’ chambers, 5 pharmacies, 9 dental practices, plus homeopathy, hijama (cupping), veterinary, nursing-college and hospital sub-unit records such as “Cabin Block” and “BSMMU Outdoor 1 (Medicine)”. Another 56 names contain no facility word at all. Three records contradict themselves by pairing amenity=hospital with healthcare=physiotherapist, occupational_therapist or laboratory. Addresses leak into names: 104 names contain a comma, and ten follow the Google Maps listing pattern “
Language is the final complication. In the snapshot, 77 names are in Bengali script, 20 use the form “English(বাংলা)”, and only 78 have name:en and 40 have name:bn. Romanised Bangla also appears, as in “Maula Buksh Sardar Datobbo Chokkhu Hospital” (Overpass API). The confusion has roots in the community. In a 2019 talk-bd debate, Bangladeshi mappers said they had put English in name for more than four years. Others argued for Bangla in name with name:en alongside, as global OSM guidance recommends (talk-bd, Nov 2019). Third-party datasets do not fix this. Healthsites.io writes edits straight into OSM and mirrors OSM changes back (OSM wiki: Global Healthsites Mapping Project), and HOT’s Bangladesh health-facility export on HDX is another OSM snapshot (HDX). Neither is an independent register. A 2019 PLOS ONE study of 24/7 emergency access for Dhaka’s urban poor ran into the same problem: there was no capacity data for health facilities (PLOS ONE).
The table below shows how each OSM signal should count in the classifier.
| OSM signal | How to use it | Why |
|---|---|---|
amenity=hospital / healthcare=hospital |
Gets a place into the candidate set; does not prove anything on its own | Dhaka applies it to diagnostics, chambers, pharmacies, vets |
emergency=no |
Strong negative; exclude from general ED results | Few records, and most look accurate (TB, eye) |
emergency=yes |
Weak positive; the name filter must still pass | Several false positives (homeo pharmacy, dental, diagnostic, OPD) |
opening_hours=24/7 |
Weak positive | Only 14 records; says nothing about whether there is an ED |
healthcare= laboratory / physiotherapist / other non-hospital value alongside amenity=hospital |
Reclassify to the healthcare value; no ED |
The tags contradict each other, and the specific value is more credible |
healthcare:speciality |
Use for a speciality badge, not for gating; normalise US/UK spellings and the non-standard values found (dentistry, neunatal, veterinary) |
Sparse and partly non-standard in Dhaka |
beds, operator:type |
Ignore for now | 0 and 15 records, and the operator tags are partly wrong |
| Missing tags | “Unknown”, not “no” | Every attribute is optional |
The naming conventions follow a legal split. The Medical Practice and Private Clinics and Laboratories (Regulation) Ordinance, 1982 defines a “private clinic” as “a clinic, hospital or nursing home, by whatever name called” where patients are admitted. It defines private laboratories (tests, X-ray, ECG) separately (bdlaws, Ordinance 1982 s.2). The DGHS Hospital and Clinic branch issues separate licences and keeps separate lists for hospitals/clinics, diagnostic centres (Categories A/B/C), blood banks, ICU/CCU and dialysis centres (DGHS Hospital & Clinic Section). DGHS directives issued in February 2024 bar a facility branded “diagnostic and hospital” from offering the other service if it holds only one of the two licences (UNB). A public-health expert notes that Bangladesh is unusual in licensing diagnostic centres separately from hospitals (TBS). This explains the familiar pairing of “X Diagnostic Centre” and “X Hospital” under the same brand. The token in the name tells you which licence, and therefore whether inpatient or emergency care, applies. Since December 2022, doctors’ chambers may operate only inside registered hospitals, clinics or diagnostic centres (The Daily Star). A chamber is therefore never an emergency destination in its own right. Homeopathy and Unani/Ayurveda fall under entirely separate laws (bdlaws Act 1482).
The scale shows why private-sector names deserve low confidence. Dhaka district alone has 827 registered private hospitals and clinics, 1,544 diagnostic centres and 152 blood banks. Inspections found hospitals of 13 to 27 beds with an “emergency” room and no doctor on duty (Dhaka Tribune). A 2024 DGHS drive penalised “Authentic Hospital” and “Ahmed Specialised Hospital” partly for having no emergency department (The Daily Star), so the word “Specialised” in a private name guarantees nothing. Bangladesh Specialized Hospital in Shyamoli, by contrast, advertises a 24/7 emergency with round-the-clock CT and MRI (hospital site). The public system is more predictable. Upazila Health Complexes, usually 50-bed hospitals, provide inpatient, outpatient and emergency care (BMJ Open via PMC). Medical college hospitals and national institutes form the tertiary tier (Wikipedia: Health in Bangladesh). Maternal and Child Welfare Centres provide emergency obstetric care, and some run 24 hours (Ittefaq).
ED column: Yes = 24-hour general emergency expected. Likely = expected by regulation or convention but often weak in small private facilities. Specialised-only = emergency limited to that speciality. No = no emergency department. Unknown = the name gives no basis for a call. Basis: C = cited in the text above or in the source link. I = inference or general knowledge (unverified). Caveat: the Bangla spellings come from general knowledge of orthography and signage, not from a cited corpus. Validate them against the name_bn column of the DGHS Facility Registry (DGHS HRIS) and against the 77 Bengali-script names in OSM.
| Keyword (English / Romanised variants) | Bangla variants (unverified) | Facility type | ED | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Medical College Hospital, Medical College & Hospital, MCH | মেডিকেল কলেজ হাসপাতাল, মেডিক্যাল কলেজ হাসপাতাল, মেডিকেল কলেজ ও হাসপাতাল | Teaching hospital (govt tertiary or private) | Yes (govt) / Likely (private) | C tier / I private |
| General Hospital, Sadar Hospital, District Hospital, “250 Bed” | জেনারেল হাসপাতাল, সদর হাসপাতাল, জেলা হাসপাতাল, ২৫০ শয্যা | Govt secondary hospital; a private “X General Hospital” counts as an ordinary private hospital | Yes (govt) | C tier / I |
| Upazila Health Complex, UHC, Thana Health Complex | উপজেলা স্বাস্থ্য কমপ্লেক্স, থানা স্বাস্থ্য কমপ্লেক্স | Govt 31-50 bed primary hospital (Savar, Keraniganj, Dhamrai, Dohar, Nawabganj) | Yes | C |
| Hospital, Hospital (Pvt.) Ltd | হাসপাতাল, হসপিটাল | Private hospital (legally a “private clinic”) | Likely (low confidence) | C |
| Specialized / Specialised / Speciality Hospital | স্পেশালাইজড হাসপাতাল, বিশেষায়িত হাসপাতাল | Usually a private multi-speciality hospital; “Specialised” is a marketing word | Likely unless a speciality word co-occurs | C |
| Clinic, Polyclinic, Nursing Home | ক্লিনিক, পলিক্লিনিক, নার্সিং হোম | Small private inpatient unit, often maternity or surgical | Unknown (weak likely) | C legal / I |
| Community Clinic, Union Health & FW Centre, EPI Centre | কমিউনিটি ক্লিনিক, ইউনিয়ন স্বাস্থ্য ও পরিবার কল্যাণ কেন্দ্র, ইপিআই কেন্দ্র | Govt daytime primary-care post | No | C tier / I |
| Emergency, Casualty, 24 Hours | জরুরি বিভাগ, জরুরী বিভাগ, ইমার্জেন্সি, ২৪ ঘণ্টা | ED entrance or a marketing claim | Yes (positive signal) | I |
| Institute / National Institute … & Hospital | ইনস্টিটিউট, জাতীয় … ইনস্টিটিউট ও হাসপাতাল | Govt tertiary speciality centre; classify by the speciality word | Specialised-only; “Institute” with no hospital word (research or training) = No | C |
| Shishu, Child, Children’s, Paediatric | শিশু, শিশু হাসপাতাল | Children’s hospital (also require a health word: “Shishu Park” is not a hospital) | Specialised-only (paediatric) | C |
| Maternity, Matri Sadan, MCWC, Mother & Child | মাতৃসদন, মা ও শিশু কল্যাণ কেন্দ্র, প্রসূতি | Govt maternity centre or private maternity clinic | Specialised-only (obstetric) | C (MCWC) / I |
| Eye, Chokkhu, Ophthalmology | চক্ষু, চোখ, চক্ষু হাসপাতাল | Eye hospital; opticals (চশমা, অপটিক্যাল) = No | Specialised-only | C |
| Heart, Cardiac, Cardiovascular, Hridrog | হৃদরোগ, হার্ট, কার্ডিয়াক | Cardiac hospital or institute | Specialised-only | C-weak / I |
| Trauma, Orthopaedic, Pongu/Pangu, NITOR | পঙ্গু, অর্থোপেডিক, ট্রমা | Trauma/orthopaedic hospital; highly relevant to road crashes | Specialised-only | C |
| Burn, Burn & Plastic Surgery | বার্ন, বার্ন ও প্লাস্টিক সার্জারি | Burn institute or unit | Specialised-only (24h not primary-confirmed) | C-weak / I |
| Kidney, Urology / Dialysis Centre | কিডনি, ইউরোলজি / ডায়ালাইসিস | Kidney hospital / scheduled dialysis | Specialised-only (hospital) / No (dialysis) | I |
| Cancer, Oncology | ক্যান্সার, ক্যানসার | Cancer hospital | Unknown (do not route general emergencies) | I |
| Chest, TB | বক্ষব্যাধি, যক্ষ্মা | Chest/TB hospital | Unknown | I |
| Mental, Psychiatric / Drug rehab | মানসিক / মাদকাসক্তি নিরাময় কেন্দ্র | Psychiatric hospital / rehab centre | Specialised-only / No | I |
| Infectious Diseases Hospital, IDH | সংক্রামক ব্যাধি হাসপাতাল | Govt infectious disease hospital | Specialised-only (unverified) | I |
| BIRDEM / Diabetic Centre, Diabetic Samity | বারডেম / ডায়াবেটিক সমিতি | BIRDEM is a full tertiary hospital; local diabetic centres are outpatient | Yes (BIRDEM) / No (centres) | C / I |
| Diagnostic, Diagnostics, Imaging, “Diagonstic” | ডায়াগনস্টিক সেন্টার, ডায়াগনষ্টিক | Licensed lab/imaging centre | No | C |
| Consultation Centre | কনসালটেশন সেন্টার | Outpatient consultations at a diagnostic centre | No | C |
| Medical Centre | মেডিকেল সেন্টার | Ambiguous (corporate, university, cantonment) | Unknown | I |
| Chamber, “Dr.” / “ডা.” prefix | চেম্বার, ডাক্তারের চেম্বার | Doctor’s private practice | No | C |
| Pathology, Lab, Laboratory, Collection Point | প্যাথলজি, ল্যাব, ল্যাবরেটরি | Private laboratory | No | C |
| Blood Bank, Transfusion, Sandhani, Badhan | ব্লাড ব্যাংক, রক্তদান, সন্ধানী, বাঁধন | Blood bank or donor organisation | No | C |
| Outdoor, OPD, Cabin Block, Unit | বহির্বিভাগ, আউটডোর | Sub-unit of a hospital (merge into the parent) | No for this POI | I |
| Dental, Dentist | ডেন্টাল, দন্ত, দাঁতের | Dental clinic | No | I |
| Physiotherapy, Rehabilitation | ফিজিওথেরাপি, পুনর্বাসন | Physio/rehab (NITOR’s name contains “Rehabilitation”; let the trauma row win) | No | I |
| Homeo, Homoeo, Homeopathic | হোমিও, হোমিওপ্যাথিক | Homeopathic dispensary | No | C |
| Ayurvedic, Unani, Hamdard, Dawakhana, Kabiraj | আয়ুর্বেদিক, ইউনানী, দাওয়াখানা, কবিরাজ | Traditional medicine | No | C |
| Hijama, Cupping, Ruqyah | হিজামা, রুকইয়াহ | Alternative therapy | No | I |
| Pharmacy, Medicine Corner, Medical Hall, Drug House | ফার্মেসি, ঔষধালয়, মেডিসিন কর্নার, মেডিকেল হল | Retail drug shop (“Medical Hall”: “Medical” alone is not a hospital signal) | No | I |
| Veterinary, Pashu, Animal, Pet | পশু হাসপাতাল, প্রাণী, ভেটেরিনারি | Animal hospital; exclude entirely | No (humans) | I |
| College (not “Medical College Hospital”), Nursing College | কলেজ, নার্সিং কলেজ | Educational institution | No | I (seen in OSM) |
Precedence decides most real cases. A service word that means No should override “Medical” and “Centre”, but not an explicit “Hospital” or “হাসপাতাল” token. So “Ibn Sina Diagnostic” is No, “Ibn Sina Hospital” is Likely, and “X Hospital & Diagnostic Centre” is a hospital. A speciality word should override a generic “Hospital” and produce a specialised-only badge. This research gives this ordering as an inference. No source prescribes it. Normalisation must handle the ্য-phala (মেডিকেল vs মেডিক্যাল), হাসপাতাল vs হসপিটাল, Centre/Center, Specialised/Specialized, Paediatric/Pediatric, Orthopaedic/Orthopedic, Homoeo/Homeo, and typos such as “Diagonstic” and “Humiopathik” that appear in the live data (Overpass API). Before matching, strip comma-separated address tails and split “English(বাংলা)” names into their two parts. Deduplicate by normalised name plus distance, for example within 150 m, and keep the polygon. Normalise Bengali names with a Unicode-aware method: an ASCII-only normaliser collapses every Bengali name into one key.
No official DGHS list of 24-hour emergency facilities in Dhaka was found. The list below is a validation set for the classifier, not a hardcoded registry. Accident and emergency patients in Dhaka are “almost invariably forwarded” to government hospitals, and DMCH and NITOR are named as overburdened (TBS). DGHS has reportedly told private hospitals to provide 24/7 emergency care under registered doctors. That comes from a news summary, and the circular itself was not seen (Jago News 24). History matters for BMU. In 2017 BSMMU had no general emergency department and sent patients to DMCH (The Daily Star). It opened a 100-bed round-the-clock emergency unit only in November 2021 (Financial Express). NIOH’s emergency service was shut from about 28 May to 4 June 2025 after violence and returned fully around 14 June (Prothom Alo; Dhaka Tribune). A 24/7 label can therefore lapse.
Status values: Confirmed = official site or reputable news. Likely = weak aggregator evidence plus the institution’s tier. Unconfirmed = no source found in this research. Restricted = not a public walk-in emergency department. Bangla names and neighbourhoods come from general knowledge and were not verified.
| Current name (aliases / old names) | Bangla (unverified) | Area | Type / emergency scope | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) | ঢাকা মেডিকেল কলেজ হাসপাতাল | Bakshibazar | Govt, general incl. trauma; main referral centre | Confirmed | Jago News 24; TBS |
| Bangladesh Medical University, BMU (BSMMU, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, “PG Hospital”) | বাংলাদেশ মেডিকেল বিশ্ববিদ্যালয় (পিজি হাসপাতাল) | Shahbagh | Govt university, general plus super-speciality; expanded cardiac emergency Jan 2025 | Confirmed (since Nov 2021) | TBS; BMU |
| NITOR, National Institute of Traumatology & Orthopaedic Rehabilitation (“Pongu Hospital”) | পঙ্গু হাসপাতাল | Sher-e-Bangla Nagar | Govt, trauma/orthopaedic only; ~200 of ~700 daily patients came via emergency (2017) | Confirmed (24/7, 12-hour shifts) | NITOR; Financial Express |
| National Institute of Ophthalmology & Hospital (NIOH, “National Eye Hospital”) | জাতীয় চক্ষুবিজ্ঞান ইনস্টিটিউট ও হাসপাতাল | Agargaon | Govt, eye only | Confirmed, with the 2025 closure caveat | NIOH; Financial Express |
| BIRDEM General Hospital | বারডেম জেনারেল হাসপাতাল | Shahbagh | Diabetic Association non-profit; general tertiary | Confirmed (official 24x7 emergency and ICU lines) | BIRDEM |
| Evercare Hospital Dhaka (formerly Apollo Hospitals Dhaka) | — | Bashundhara | Private, general plus trauma and cardiac | Confirmed (24/7 incl. holidays) | Evercare |
| Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital | শহীদ সোহরাওয়ার্দী মেডিকেল কলেজ হাসপাতাল | Sher-e-Bangla Nagar | Govt, general | Likely | Medexly |
| Sir Salimullah Medical College Mitford Hospital | স্যার সলিমুল্লাহ মেডিকেল কলেজ মিটফোর্ড হাসপাতাল | Old Dhaka | Govt, general | Likely | Medexly |
| Mugda Medical College Hospital (formerly Mugda General Hospital) | মুগদা মেডিকেল কলেজ হাসপাতাল | Mugda | Govt, general, 500 beds, chronically over capacity | Likely (no explicit 24h source; tagged emergency=yes in OSM) |
Wikipedia; The Daily Star |
| Bangladesh Shishu Hospital & Institute (formerly Dhaka Shishu Hospital; renamed by 2021 Act) | বাংলাদেশ শিশু হাসপাতাল ও ইনস্টিটিউট | Sher-e-Bangla Nagar | Statutory public body, paediatric only, 680 beds | Likely | Medexly; Wikipedia |
| Dr M R Khan Shishu Hospital & Institute of Child Health | — | Mirpur-2 | Paediatric only | Likely (Facebook listing) | Facebook page |
| National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) | জাতীয় হৃদরোগ ইনস্টিটিউট ও হাসপাতাল | Sher-e-Bangla Nagar | Govt, cardiac only | Likely (aggregator only) | Medexly; infoghor |
| National Institute of Neurosciences & Hospital (NINS) | জাতীয় নিউরোসায়েন্স ইনস্টিটিউট ও হাসপাতাল | Agargaon | Govt, neuro/stroke | Likely (aggregator only) | Medexly |
| National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery (renamed 3 Nov 2024 from Sheikh Hasina National Institute …) | জাতীয় বার্ন ও প্লাস্টিক সার্জারি ইনস্টিটিউট | Chankharpul, next to DMCH | Govt, burns, 500 beds | Likely (24h not sourced; rename confirmed) | Dhaka Tribune; Wikipedia |
| National Institute of Mental Health & Hospital (NIMH) | জাতীয় মানসিক স্বাস্থ্য ইনস্টিটিউট ও হাসপাতাল | Sher-e-Bangla Nagar | Govt, psychiatric | Unconfirmed (a directory itself says “please verify”) | doctorinfobd |
| National Gastro Liver Institute & Hospital (renamed 3 Nov 2024 from Sheikh Russel …) | — | Mohakhali | Govt, GI/liver | Unconfirmed (rename confirmed) | UNB |
| Kurmitola General Hospital; Kuwait Bangladesh Friendship Govt Hospital (Uttara) | কুর্মিটোলা জেনারেল হাসপাতাল; কুয়েত বাংলাদেশ মৈত্রী সরকারি হাসপাতাল | Cantonment; Uttara | Govt, general | Unconfirmed (not researched; tier suggests Yes) | — |
| NIKDU, NICRH (cancer), NIDCH (chest), National Heart Foundation | — | Sher-e-Bangla Nagar / Mohakhali / Mirpur-2 | Kidney, cancer, chest, cardiac | Unconfirmed | — |
| Square Hospital | স্কয়ার হাসপাতাল | Panthapath | Private, general | Likely (official site lists an “Emergency Centre”; no 24h wording seen) | Square; Medexly |
| Holy Family Red Crescent Medical College Hospital | — | Eskaton/Moghbazar | Charitable, general | Likely (official site lists Emergency & Ambulance) | Holy Family |
| United Hospital | — | Gulshan 2 | Private, general plus trauma | Likely (directories) | caregiveragencybd |
| Labaid Specialized Hospital | — | Dhanmondi | Private, general (strong in cardiac) | Likely (blog) | bearmybrand |
| Popular Medical College Hospital | — | Dhanmondi | Private, general | Likely (aggregator) | Medexly |
| Ibn Sina Hospital | — | Dhanmondi, other branches | Private, general; emergency at “selected branches” only | Likely for the main branch; Unknown for others | Medexly |
| Green Life Medical College Hospital | — | Green Road | Private, general, “moderate-capacity” emergency | Likely (aggregator) | Medexly |
| Bangladesh Specialized Hospital | — | Shyamoli | Private, general | Confirmed (own site: 24/7) | hospital site |
| Labaid Cardiac, Ad-din, Al-Razi (Farmgate), Anwer Khan Modern, Bangladesh Medical College Hospital, Universal | — | Various | Private | Unconfirmed (Al-Razi is easily confused with Al-Rajhi at the same address) | bdtradeinfo |
| Combined Military Hospital (CMH) Dhaka | সম্মিলিত সামরিক হাসপাতাল | Cantonment | Military tertiary, ~1,500 beds | Restricted: civilian care documented only for a special programme for students injured in Aug 2024 | Dhaka Tribune |
Aggregators warn that staffing can thin out after midnight and on public holidays even where 24/7 is claimed (Medexly). During Eid, DMCH reported a shortage of specialists on site (Jago News 24). “24-hour emergency” should therefore read as “a door that stays open”, not “a full specialist team”. Foreign missions also list Praava Health (Banani) and RA Hospital (Gulshan) as emergency options, without endorsing them (Australian High Commission).
Renames after 2024 make alias matching mandatory. On 3 Nov 2024 the health ministry renamed 14 institutions. Two are in Dhaka: the Burn Institute and the Gastro Liver Institute, both of which dropped Sheikh-family names (Dhaka Tribune). BSMMU became Bangladesh Medical University by a 2025 ordinance. Sources disagree on the date (13 March or 13 April 2025), and the Gazette has not been checked (Wikipedia; bdnews24). OSM still carries “BSMMU Outdoor”, “PG Outdoor” and “পিজি হাসপাতাল” (Overpass API). The alias list should map BSMMU, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University and PG Hospital to BMU. It should also map Sheikh Hasina Burn to the Burn Institute, Sheikh Russel Gastroliver to the Gastro Liver Institute, Dhaka Shishu to Bangladesh Shishu Hospital & Institute, and Apollo Dhaka to Evercare. Classify by the speciality keyword, not the honorific. Other Sheikh-named units, such as the Sheikh Fazilatunnesa Mujib facilities, were not checked.
999 is Bangladesh’s single toll-free, 24/7 emergency number. Bangladesh Police run it from the Police Control Room in Dhaka, and it routes calls to police, fire and ambulance. Between Dec 2017 and Apr 2026 it handled 71.17 million calls, of which 55.4% needed no service. Ambulance dispatches numbered 225,611 (Dhaka Tribune, May 2026). The call is free but the ambulance is not. A government portal says no authority provides free ambulance service (bangladesh.gov.bd union portal). Dhaka North City Corporation’s five ambulances are dispatched through 999 (Dhaka Tribune, May 2025). No separate city-corporation ambulance number should be shown. The fire service moved to 102 in June 2024, and the older 16163 was due to end after 31 Dec 2024 (TBS). 16263 (Shastho Batayon) is DGHS’s free 24/7 doctor-advice line, with about 100 MBBS doctors and 2.35 million calls in 2025 (Prothom Alo, Jan 2026). In February 2026 the operator had gone 17 months unpaid (Tk 11.24 crore), with the contract ending in April 2026 (Observer; Financial Express).
| Number | Purpose | Operator | Status (Oct 2026) | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 999 | Police, fire, ambulance dispatch; toll-free, 24/7 | Bangladesh Police | Active (confirmed May 2026). Label it “free call”, never “free ambulance” | Dhaka Tribune |
| 102 | Fire Service & Civil Defence emergency | FSCD Dhaka Central Control Room | Current official number. Worked from all mobile operators but not T&T landlines at its June 2024 launch; whether it is free is not stated | TBS; Financial Express |
| 16163 | Old fire hotline (introduced 2022) | FSCD | Likely retired after 31 Dec 2024; retirement not confirmed. Omit or mark as legacy | TBS |
| 02-223355555 | Fire service landline | FSCD | Said to remain in use (June 2024); medium confidence | TBS |
| 16263 | Free doctor advice plus hospital, ambulance and blood information; non-emergency | DGHS, run by Synesis IT (one outlet says “Genesis”, probably a typo) | Uncertain: active Feb 2026 but facing shutdown; nothing found after that | Prothom Alo; Observer |
| 333 | Government information, services and complaints; toll-free from any operator | a2i (Cabinet/ICT Division, UNDP) | Active (Feb 2026); hours unconfirmed; not a medical line | TBS; UNDP |
| 109 | Violence against women and children; rescue, legal and health referral; 24/7 toll-free (SMS charged) | Ministry of Women & Children Affairs | Active (Nov 2025) | The Daily Star; Prothom Alo |
| 1098 | Child Helpline; 24/7 incl. holidays, toll-free from any operator | Dept. of Social Services (UNICEF) | Active in 2023 (325,414 calls); no 2025-26 confirmation | DSS Chandpur portal; Prothom Alo |
| Poison control | — | — | No official national poison hotline found; route poisonings to 999, 16263 or the nearest ED | — |
Several points remain unverified. No source confirmed that any of these numbers works with zero balance or without a SIM, so the app should say “toll-free” rather than “works with no credit”. fireservice.gov.bd could not be loaded, so neither the end of 16163 nor T&T coverage of 102 was confirmed on the official site. Old hospital ambulance numbers, such as a 2020 DMCH line, and DNCC’s COVID-era relief lines were deliberately left out. Awareness is a product problem in its own right: in one survey only 12% of women knew of 109, against 45% for 999 (The Daily Star). An app that puts 999 first and labels it clearly adds real value.
The main lesson is that “has a 24-hour emergency department” in Dhaka depends on the institution far more than on the map tag. The facilities that matter most are the few dozen government medical college hospitals, national institutes and major private hospitals, and they are few enough to keep in a curated alias table. Name rules can then handle the long tail of more than 1,500 diagnostic centres and hundreds of small clinics, mostly by excluding them. A practical design keeps four outputs: a confirmed or likely general ED, a specialised-only badge (trauma, eye, child, burn, heart, maternity), “unknown” for small private hospitals and clinics, and exclusion for non-hospitals. Confidence should come from the source (official, news, aggregator, OSM tag), not from OSM’s emergency=yes, which in Dhaka is as likely to sit on a dental clinic as on DMCH.
Two maintenance obligations follow. Names and statuses drift: political renames in 2024-25, a week-long eye-hospital closure in 2025, and a 2026 funding crisis on 16263. Any “24/7” claim and any hotline therefore needs a last-verified date in the app, and a periodic check against the DGHS Facility Registry and official hospital pages. The unconfirmed rows also need work. Kurmitola, Kuwait-Bangladesh Friendship, the Burn Institute, NICVD and the large private hospitals are almost certainly open around the clock, and a short phone-verification pass would turn the “likely” tier into ground truth. Correcting the tags upstream in OSM would let every other Dhaka health app benefit too.