As the Bangladesh government continues to draw upon its already strained resources to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic, it is disappointing to see that it is yet to take assistance from the private hospitals in the country.
From the very beginning of the coronavirus outbreak, health practitioners from around the world have stressed on the importance of adequate testing to get the full picture of the situation.
However, it is regrettable that Bangladesh has been lagging significantly behind when it comes to testing its citizens, with the resources and facilities for testing limited to only a few public hospitals and health organizations.
Indeed, there has been talk of setting up new facilities, and there is a legitimate question to be asked: Why not use the premises, the personnel, the trained staff already set-up in these private hospitals to combat the coronavirus?
Meanwhile, reports suggest that 75% of the beds in private hospitals sit empty, which includes the nearly 1,200 ICUs -- all of which could prove to be vital down the road.
The fact that private hospitals are always an integral part of combating the yearly outbreak of dengue and other mosquito-borne diseases makes it even more surprising that the government is not collaborating with them when it comes to dealing with the coronavirus.
We have seen health care systems across the world get overwhelmed under the pressure of the coronavirus.
Bangladesh is already far behind when it comes to having sufficient ventilators, and only 45 ICUs have been set up with facilities to treat Covid-19 patients, which needs to be increased manifolds.
To that end, it is gross negligence on the part of the authorities to not recognize that we also need our private hospitals during this crisis.
The need of the hour, therefore, is to allow private hospitals to start testing patients, along with providing the medical personnel with PPE and other safety equipment, so that private hospitals do not have to turn away any more patients from their doors.