Finance Minister AMA Muhith Thursday proposed an allocation of Tk 111.46 billion for the health sector in the budget for the fiscal year (FY) 2014-15, up by Tk 20 billion from that of the current fiscal.
The proposed health sector budget was Tk 94.70 billion in the FY 2013-14 and the revised budget was Tk 99.55 billion. The actual allocation in the FY 2012-13 was Tk 85.49 billion.
The government will continue construction of 13,500 community clinics (CCs). As of now, service delivery has begun at 12,557 CCs while 943 clinics are still under construction, the minister said in his budget speech.
"We will deliver maternal health care services through these clinics. Our ultimate goal is to reduce maternal mortality rate to 143 per 0.1 million live births," he said.
"Although our progress in reducing the child mortality rate is satisfactory, we want to bring it down further," Mr Muhith added.
He said the government's aim was to raise average life expectancy to 72 years by 2021. At the same time, easy access would be provided to the reproductive health service delivery system to reduce the birth rate.
Besides, the government will expand the tele-medicine service, introduce social health insurance programme as early as possible in order to bring down the medical expenses within the reach of the poor.
Mr Muhith said supportive government policy and environment helped establish a number of government and private medical colleges, nursing and medical technology institutes. Along with the expansion of medical education, measures would be undertaken to maintain standard of education.
"In order to fulfil that objective, attempts will be made to enhance the capacity of healthcare institutions and healthcare regulatory agencies. We will also work on the development of Homeopathic, Unani and Ayurvedic medicines," he said.
Initiatives would be taken to build an appropriate regulatory framework and enhance institutional and technical facilities for controlling the quality of herbal medicines, he added.
