A survey by Transparency International Bangladesh highlights how the country’s chronic shortage of sufficient health professionals to fill vacant public health postings is made worse by the collusion of some doctors and public officials in bribery.
We hope the Health and Family Welfare Minister will act on his promise to investigate any specific allegations of corruption that are reported in the health sector.
The bigger underlying problem highlighted by the TIB report is the limited resources allocated to healthcare in the country. If there were more well-funded hospitals and services across the whole country, it would be easier to root out the bribery associated with some coveted posts.
The World Health Organisation recommends Bangladesh should be looking to spend 5% of GDP on the health sector, but only 0.84% of GDP was allotted in the last financial year.
While we have been relatively successful over the last 40 years in increasing life expectancy and ensuring high rates of immunisation and treatment coverage, and the essential drugs policy has helped create a thriving and efficient pharmaceutical industry, the government cannot afford to be complacent.
The country faces many healthcare challenges, including both malnutrition caused by poverty and obesity caused by growing wealth. We need better health education and prevention to mitigate some of the challenges presented by a growing and ageing population.
We also need to invest more to ensure more people have access to good healthcare across the nation.
