Prime Minister Tarique Rahman is of course correct: Public trust is indeed the biggest challenge in Bangladesh’s healthcare system.
With that said, this trust has eroded for a reason, a woeful medical system that has long cared more about exploiting people instead of serving them.
Trust can also not be built through speeches or budget lines. It must be built through consistent, visible improvement in the care people receive.
The increase in the health budget for FY26 was a positive first step that signaled recognition that Bangladesh’s healthcare system needs more investment, more capacity, and more resilience.
However, higher allocations alone do not guarantee better outcomes. Citizens do not judge the system by numbers in a budget document, but by what happens when they walk into a hospital and medical facility.
And it is that experience that requires improvement. The present state of the majority of our medical facilities - overcrowded wards, shortages of essential medicines, understaffed facilities, and uneven quality of care - cannot continue.
For that, the first step is improved governance and accountability. Mismanagement, absenteeism, and corruption in service delivery have directly harmed patients, and the authorities concerned must ensure we change this narrative in order to begin restoring confidence.
We must also ensure that the increased budget translates into better doctors, nurses, diagnostics, and functioning equipment and not, as is often the case, lost to procurement inefficiencies or infrastructure that remains unused.
The PM has identified the core issue and now the work must follow to build a better healthcare system. People will begin to trust only when they see better care, safer facilities, and a system that treats every patient with dignity.
