Thorny issues are aplenty in this country and a good number of those deserve priority attention from the government. The authorities much to the disappointment of the sufferers, however, have been displaying gross indifference to many pressing problems for long. They wake up from deep slumber only when issues turn ugly and make media headlines.
A case in point is the ongoing drive against illegal hospitals and health clinics. The death of two minor boys during circumcision in Dhaka city stirred up grave concern over the quality of services in healthcare facilities. Health officials under the leadership of the new health minister now appear to be serious about dealing with the problem of unregistered private hospitals and clinics and the inadequacies of the legal ones.
The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) had launched identical drives in the past. Those, however, got stalled halfway for unexplained reasons. None, however, bothered to ask questions about it. There should not be any valid reason for being too optimistic about getting any notable results from the ongoing drive for two reasons. One, the DGHS neither has enough manpower nor logistics to look into the affairs of private hospitals and clinics that have mushroomed throughout the country over the years. The mushrooming has taken place allegedly with the direct indulgence of a section of unscrupulous health officials.
The incumbent minister seems to be genuinely serious about stopping an anarchic situation prevailing in the health sector, but one has ample reasons to be sceptical about the success of his mission.
Going by the developments in the health sector, most people tend to believe that owners of private health facilities or pharmaceutical companies are influential people and they are above the law. The power of money or political connection does play a role here. Such a notion gets strengthened when there is an unabated rise in the prices of medicines or hospitals fix their rates at will with no government agency bothering to pay attention to the developments. The increase in medicine prices has been enormous and unjustified. Most locally manufactured drugs and medicines have become costlier by 30 per cent to 100 per cent over the last two to three years. What is most agonising is that the government has preferred to be an onlooker in a country where out-of-pocket medical expenses are as high as 67 per cent. There is no denying that the cost of production for drug manufacturers has gone up in recent months because of the depreciation of taka vis-à-vis the US dollar. However, the rise in medicine prices far outstrips the increase in the cost of production.
The cost of medicine production could have been far less had the drug manufacturers skipped or curtailed the expenses made on so-called promotional activities designed to benefit the doctors unduly. It is no secret how drug manufacturers bribe doctors to prescribe their products.
The government could improve the prevailing situation by categorising the private hospitals and clinics and fixing the maximum fees based on discussions with the relevant stakeholders. It should also make it mandatory for doctors to write only generic names of medicines and ensure that pharmacies and drug stores employ qualified pharmacists.
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