That the public healthcare system in Bangladesh is in a very sorry state of this there is no doubt, but due to absence of proper monitoring the private health facilities are also beset with innumerable problems. In recent days the country has seen a spurt of growth of hospitals, clinics and diagnostic centres at the private initiative due to increase in number of patients as well as overall absence of quality in the public health service delivery system.
Currently, on a positive move the government has initiated a countrywide drive against unauthorised health facilities, and on Monday alone, as many as 267 illegal private hospitals, clinics, diagnostic centres and blood banks were closed during the drive by the Directorate General of Health Services officials.
This drive has prompted, surprisingly though, a flood of applications before the health directorate seeking either for fresh applications for licenses or renewal of expired licenses. According to a report yesterday, just in a single day — on May 29 — 558 such organisations applied to the DGHS online. Interestingly, many private hospitals did not even find it necessary to follow the required procedures of an application submission; they are just submitting that only to avoid closure of their health facility.
In the country many maternity clinics are being opened only to perform caesarian operations even though in most cases this procedure is just not necessary. Just a few days ago, doctors, nurses and other staff fled an unlicensed hospital in Narayanganj leaving a mother and her just-delivered newborn on the operating table after hearing that DGHS was going to raid the hospital.
During the peak of Covid-19 pandemic, the nation was shocked to see two private hospitals providing exam tests for Covid-19 without any testing altogether. Money-making motive shamelessly dominates the healthcare business here. Go to a private clinic with just a seasonal fever, and you will be advised to perform several tests where doctors get kickbacks in the name of ‘commission’.
Therefore, besides improving service delivery at the public health facilities, it is vitally important that all private hospitals, clinics and diagnostic centres of the country should be brought under a strict supervision system so that they provide at least some standard of health service to the patients. The present drive against unauthorised health centres by DGHS is indeed one such effort in that direction.
