City Desk :
Bangladesh must ensure participation of the people of all strata as the government could not alone achieve universal health coverage, health experts told a function.
They said this recently while speaking at a function as Save the Children launched their global report “Primary Health Care First: Strengthening the Foundation for Universal Health Coverage”, marking the Universal Health Coverage Day. In respect to the global report, Save the Children in Bangladesh has undertaken an in-depth situation analysis to discuss the progress, successes and challenges of advancing UHC in Bangladesh.
The report launching event titled ‘Realizing Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in Bangladesh: Time for action’ was organized at a city hotel.
This programme was jointly organized by Save the Children in Bangladesh and BRAC James P Grant School of Public Health (JPGSP), BRAC University. Ashadul Islam, secretary of the ministry of Public Administration, Md Nuruzzaman, Acting DG, Health Economics Unit, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Dr. Hossian Zillur Rahman, Chairman, Power and Participation Research Centre (PPRC), health experts and officials of different organizations, among others, addressed the function.
Dr. Shamim Jahan, Director of Health Nutrition and HIV/AIDS at Save the Children in Bangladesh discussed about Save the Children’s evidence based programs on the ground which have been successfully scaled up and operationalised and worked in the health system strengthening. Senior research fellow of JPGSPH of BRAC Nadia Ishrat Alamgir and Senior Research Associate Dr Nahitun Naher and Assistant Professor of JPGPH of BRAC Taufique Joarder made separate presentations on different aspects of UHC.
Ashadul Islam said, “We must improve quality of health care facilities to achieve universal health coverage in the country. In order to ensure universal health coverage, we have to increase budgetary allocation along with efficiency of doctors, nurses and other medical staffs.”
Referring to statistics of 2012, he said, Bangladesh spends 27 US dollar per head annually while India spends 59 US dollar, Nepal 39, Pakistan 30, Sri Lanka 97, Indonesia 95 and Vietnam 96.
Other speakers said Bangladesh must remove inequalities to ensure universal health coverage as it is still facing many challenges to provide healthcare facilities for the underprivileged people and those living in hard-to-reach regions.
They attributed poor healthcare coverage to different sorts of inequalities – – geographical, financial, educational and gender-which are obstructing the access of people to healthcare facilities.
Bangladesh must ensure participation of the people of all strata as the government could not alone achieve universal health coverage, health experts told a function.
They said this recently while speaking at a function as Save the Children launched their global report “Primary Health Care First: Strengthening the Foundation for Universal Health Coverage”, marking the Universal Health Coverage Day. In respect to the global report, Save the Children in Bangladesh has undertaken an in-depth situation analysis to discuss the progress, successes and challenges of advancing UHC in Bangladesh.
The report launching event titled ‘Realizing Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in Bangladesh: Time for action’ was organized at a city hotel.
This programme was jointly organized by Save the Children in Bangladesh and BRAC James P Grant School of Public Health (JPGSP), BRAC University. Ashadul Islam, secretary of the ministry of Public Administration, Md Nuruzzaman, Acting DG, Health Economics Unit, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Dr. Hossian Zillur Rahman, Chairman, Power and Participation Research Centre (PPRC), health experts and officials of different organizations, among others, addressed the function.
Dr. Shamim Jahan, Director of Health Nutrition and HIV/AIDS at Save the Children in Bangladesh discussed about Save the Children’s evidence based programs on the ground which have been successfully scaled up and operationalised and worked in the health system strengthening. Senior research fellow of JPGSPH of BRAC Nadia Ishrat Alamgir and Senior Research Associate Dr Nahitun Naher and Assistant Professor of JPGPH of BRAC Taufique Joarder made separate presentations on different aspects of UHC.
Ashadul Islam said, “We must improve quality of health care facilities to achieve universal health coverage in the country. In order to ensure universal health coverage, we have to increase budgetary allocation along with efficiency of doctors, nurses and other medical staffs.”
Referring to statistics of 2012, he said, Bangladesh spends 27 US dollar per head annually while India spends 59 US dollar, Nepal 39, Pakistan 30, Sri Lanka 97, Indonesia 95 and Vietnam 96.
Other speakers said Bangladesh must remove inequalities to ensure universal health coverage as it is still facing many challenges to provide healthcare facilities for the underprivileged people and those living in hard-to-reach regions.
They attributed poor healthcare coverage to different sorts of inequalities – – geographical, financial, educational and gender-which are obstructing the access of people to healthcare facilities.
