Health service a mess

Planning Commission member Dr Shamsul Alam yesterday said Bangladesh's health service is in a mess.

Referring to the statistics of out-of-pocket expenditure for health being 64 percent in the country, he said the amount is large and must be reduced.

Researchers also found that every year 40 lakh people are pushed below the poverty line due to health burdens.

"At the grassroots level, there is a good structure -- upazila health complexes and community clinics-- but somehow they cannot supply adequate services," said Dr Shamsul Alam, member of General Economics Division of the Planning Commission.

The remarks came on the last day of a three-day international health conference at a hotel in the capital on universal health coverage organised by Power and Participation Research Centre (PPRC) with support from the Rockefeller Foundation and World Bank.

He said the 1.6 percent of GDP spent in the health sector is meagre, and assured that contribution in the seventh five-year plan (2016-20) would be enhanced with health and education being a priority.

Dr Rashid-e-Mahbub, former president of Bangladesh Medical Association, said poor people have little access to health, which forces them to go to the quacks.

Grassroots health facilities like community clinics, union health and family welfare centres and upazila health complexes need to be equipped with quality health professionals and logistics, he said.

Brac Vice Chair Ahmed Chowdhury Mushtaque said that to achieve universal health coverage, the government could target social health insurance schemes for segments like garment workers, members of microfinance organisations, government and NGO employees and the people below the poverty line.

Dr Mukesh Chawla, adviser to the Health, Nutrition and Population Global Practice of The World Bank, Birdem Hospital Director General Dr Nazmun Nahar, Gonoshasthya Kendra Trustee Dr Zafarullah Chowdhury and PPRC Executive Chairman Dr Hossain Zillur Rahman also spoke.