Healthcare curbed by corruption: TIB
The health sector of the country is being affected by corruption of the doctors, concerned officials and employees, according to a survey of Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB).
Doctors, health officials and employees bribes up to Tk 10 lakh to health officials on appointment, transfers and promotion purpopses, said Taslima Akhter, TIB’s programme manager (research and policy), at a press conference at a hotel in Dhaka this morning.
The briefing was arranged to reveal the TIB report on the challenges to good governance in the health sector and ways to improve.
The graft watchdog interviewed doctors, employees and officials between November 2013 and August 2014 to conduct the survey.
Iftekharuzzaman, executive director of TIB who also attended the programme, said the health sector of Bangladesh had several achievements but also had some limiting factors, like graft, which curbed the standard of healthcare in the country.
The report said doctors pay Tk 3 lakh to Tk 5 lakh in bribe for recruitment and Tk 1 lakh to Tk 2 lakh for transfer to a Dhaka hospital from upazilas and upazila Sadars. To get transferred to an upazila town from remote areas or an upazila, they pay between Tk 10,000 and Tk 50,000.
Health officials pay from Tk 5 lakh to Tk 10 lakh in bribe for being transferred to Dhaka or adjoining areas, the report said.
Grade-III and VI employees pay Tk 1 lakh to 5 lakh for appointment and Tk 50,000 to Tk 2 lakh for transferring into upazila town from other parts in the upazilas, it said.
Meanwhile, doctors, health officials and employees pay Tk 2.5 lakh or more to avoid transfer.
For private healthcare services, the TIB said doctors have agreements with diagnostic centres and enjoy 30 to 50 percent commission for referring the patients to a particular diagnostic centre. “The brokers in the middle get 10-30 percent commission.”
Many diagnostic centres use names of pathologists to deliver a report despite having no staff pathologists of their own, the TIB said.
A number of doctors, not even recognised by the Bangladesh Medical and Dental Council, are practicing across the country and catering healthcare services to the public, the report claimed.
The graft watchdog recommended the government to increase the allotment for healthcare sector in the upcoming budgets to tackle the identified problems.
The TIB also urged for updating the laws related to the healthcare service and its enforcement.
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