A report in the New Nation on Saturday said big medical bills pauper many families highlighting the plight of the ordinary people in meeting the cost of Covid-19 treatment in private hospitals. It said in many cases private hospitals use unnecessary drugs and ICUs to charge huge bills and when a patient dies they take the body hostage to realise the bill. We would say such treatment of the dead is both scandalous and inhuman, we condemn it. Here we would say the family of course should pay the bill but it should be affordable. If a family has to sell everything or take a loan to meet the medical expenses of its ailing member how will it survive!
As we know in most cases a section of doctors and powerful people set up private hospitals purely on a business motive and as a matter of policy they divert patients from government hospitals to their hospitals. We wonder why the government has surrendered most specialised
treatment facilities to private hospitals. Why it failed to set up enough specialised Covid-19 hospitals in over one and a half years. We would want to know if the government has any responsibility to save people in dire need of medical services.
The government does not lack money to develop Covid-19 treatment infrastructure and set up more beds in the public hospitals. Another question is why it closed the 2000 bed make-shift hospital at Bashundhara Convention City when patients were running for low cost Covid-19 test and treatment. Why private hospitals are charging Taka 3,000 to 4,000 for covid-19 test while its charge at government hospitals is only Taka 100. The fact is that access to government hospitals is quite limited. It needs no mention that the specialised treatment system has been evolved to help private hospitals developed by vested interest people dominating the health sector.
The New Nation story cited a few examples. A patient was denied admission to a government hospital and when he received treatment at a private hospital and died his family got Taka 4,00,000 medical bill. Another individual lost job when he demanded a loan from his employer to pay a hefty Covid-19 treatment bill for his wife, daughter and another relative. We wonder why our state cannot offer affordable medical services to its people.
