Primary health care seekers in rural areas are bearing 68% of the total health expenditure. By allocating an additional Tk8,000 crore for the health sector in the coming fiscal year, the ratio could be brought down to 51%, former Bangladesh Bank governor Prof Atiur Rahman has said.
He was presenting the keynote paper at a post-budget online dialogue session organized jointly by Bangladesh Health Watch, Brac James P Grant School of Public Health, Brac University and Unnayan Shamannay recently, said a press release issued on Thursday.
Former information minister and Kushtia 2 lawmaker Hasanul Haq Inu graced the event as the chief guest. Lawmakers Dr Pran Gopal Dutta and Lutfun Nesa Khan attended the event as special guests.
The chief guest, in his remarks, emphasized developing a five-year plan for the health sector attaching the highest priority to ensuring universal primary healthcare and then allocating the budget in alignment with that plan.
Health insurance schemes were identified as the way forward by Dr Dutta, to ensure universal access to quality and affordable healthcare. He believed that the government should start piloting health insurance schemes as soon as possible.
Other major recommendations coming out of this dialogue session are – increasing allocations for primary healthcare to reduce out-of-pocket health expenditure, increasing the supply of free-of-cost medicines and availability of diagnostic facilities at all government-run healthcare facilities, etc.
Representatives from different government and non-government bodies related to public health participated in the question-answer session.
Major points discussed were the lack of funding to deal with noncommunicable diseases, the inadequacy of training on administration and accounts for health cadres, limited access to government-run health facilities in urban areas, etc.
Chaos and mismanagement were mentioned by most of the participants.
Dr Be-Nazir Ahmed, former director, disease control, DGHS, said: “We have serious mismanagement in this sector and that is only because of the lack of adequate medical people. Right people are not in the right position. We are making well-equipped hospitals at upazila levels but some of them are remaining empty because of the lack of medical technicians, doctors, nurses, etc.”
He also pointed out the deteriorated urban health condition of the country and suggested further engagements with local governments to solve the problem more effectively.
Morsheda Chowdhury, director, Health, Nutrition and Population Programme of Brac, stressed the issue of more public and private collaboration. “EPI, ORS, etc programs are carried out by NGOs and have become very successful. To make more such success stories, strong collaborations are needed.”
On behalf of the organizers, Bangladesh Health Watch thematic group Chair Prof Rumana Haque delivered the welcome speech, while Unnayan Shamannay Project Coordinator Zahid Rahman moderated the session.
Dr Atiur Rahman ended the session by saying that in future budgets, it was necessary to take care of the issue of the marginalized population.