Thrust on HR dev, monitoring of community clinics

There is a shortage of adequate and skilled human resources at the community clinics and health centres in the coastal region of Bangladesh.

To ensure effective healthcare services within the existing manpower, government monitoring will have to be strengthened.

The inability to provide adequate healthcare to the people living in the coastal areas, would undermine the realisation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of "Leave No One Behind".

These observations emerged from a dialogue titled "Healthcare in the Coastal Areas: The Effectiveness of Public Service Delivery" in Barguna on Tuesday, according to a press statement.

This event was organised jointly by Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) and Oxfam in Bangladesh, in association with Jago Nari, under an ongoing project titled 'Enhancing the participation of community-based organisations (CBOs) and civil society organisations (CSOs) in democratic governance in Bangladesh', supported by the European Union (EU).

Mr Towfiqul Islam Khan, Senior Research Fellow, CPD, made a keynote presentation at the dialogue. In his presentation, he said that as Barguna is a coastal district, most of the assigned government physicians are also not willing to stay here. About 15.30 per cent of the women in Barguna conceive before the age of 18 and, infant mortality is about 27 per 1,000 live births.

Mr Mustain Billah, Deputy Commissioner of Barguna District, as the chief guest at the dialogue, said that, the district administration has taken various initiatives to raise awareness about sexual and reproductive healthcare among adolescents.

Dr Md. Humayun Shaheen Khan, Civil Surgeon of Barguna spoke as the special guest at the event. He said that, in order to address the shortage of manpower in various community clinics and health centres in the district, it is crucial to increase the government workforce and budget.

Eminent citizen of Barguna Sukhranjan Sheel, as the discussant, mentioned that the citizens also need to be more vigilant and aware in addressing health challenges.

Professor Mustafizur Rahman, Distinguished Fellow, CPD, chaired the event. He said that, we can notice from the research that various health hazards of coastal areas are linked to lack of safe and potable water. The local administration and the citizens should work together to make safe water more accessible.

Hosne Ara Hasi, chief executive, Jago Nari, delivered welcome remarks and Dr Khalid Hossain, programme manager, Oxfam in Bangladesh, delivered introductory remarks at the event.

The dialogue was attended by some one hundred and seventy participants including public representatives, business leaders, government officials, representatives from civil society organisations, academics, researchers, students and media, among others.