Bangladesh’s households bear some 93 per cent of the total cost of illness for senior citizens as out-of-pocket payment, highest in South Asia, a new study finds. The study, conducted by Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), has also revealed the majority of elderly people get healthcare services from pharmacies, indicating a hazardous scenario of the country’s health sector.
The study on ‘Health status and Healthcare-seeking behaviour assessment among elderly citizens in Bangladesh’ found that approximately 93 per cent of elderly people suffered from illness in the last six months preceding the survey whereas 84 per cent suffered from chronic illness. The survey was completed on September 30, 2020.
Citing the WHO Global Health expenditure database, Dr Abdur Razzaque Sarker, a research fellow of BIDS, said the overall out-of-pocket expenditure in the percentage of total health expenditure in Bangladesh is about 74 per cent of current healthcare expenditure, which is higher than those of any SAARC nations, except for Afghanistan.
The majority of the elderly people reported that some 61 per cent had taken healthcare services from pharmacies, followed by public facilities (33 per cent) and private facilities (19 per cent).It was found that nearly 9.0 per cent of the elderly citizens in the poorest quintiles did not seek care while in the richest quintiles it was only 2.0 per cent.
So the richest families are almost five times as likely to seek healthcare as the poorest — and the major reason for that is that they have to pay out of their pocket. Hence the reason why almost two thirds of the patients seek out basic care from pharmacies is because of the cost. But pharmacists are not medical persons.
Those who are our good doctors are among the best to take care of patients but modern facilities are not available in public sector. Where government ministers and other government high-ups can easily go abroad for medical care at public expense, the government has no concern to look after the public health sector. We have to people’s government to listen about needs of senior citizens and others in difficulties.
