Medicare service in Bangladesh

Medicare is one of the basic needs of human life. In Bangladesh the majority of the people are poor and cannot afford to spend much on medical treatment. They go to public hospitals because of their affordable costs, although the environment and service quality are much below the mark. The poor health conditions in Bangladesh can be attributed easily to lack of healthcare facilities provided by the government. The total expenditure on healthcare as a percentage to our GDP was only 3.35 per cent in 2009 according to a World Bank report published in 2010.
However lack of services in public hospitals forces many poor patients to seek treatment at private clinics although the cost involved in those clinics is staggering. Every day when we open the newspapers or watch TV news, we can see news about mismanagement and lowering of service quality in public hospitals. There is no dearth of medical equipment or qualified physicians in these hospitals. But unfortunately patients suffer a lot due only to lack of responsibility of the authorities. On the other hand, when doctors are absent, nurses and ward boys take over as if they are all in all in the hospital. There is an all pervading influence of the brokers in the government hospitals. They bother the patients regularly and their relatives inside and outside the hospital. And most of the people have to depend on or take the help of a broker for jobs starting from admission of patients, a bed in the ward, medical tests etc. The brokers demand commissions at every step to the people to accomplish each job.
Besides, doctors are not available on public holidays, during night shift duty and at times of emergencies. They are mostly busy with their private practice. The most important issue is environment of the public hospitals. Rooms are incredibly dirty and the outside space is used for dumping all the medical wastes. This is true for almost all public hospitals. The toilets of public hospital are unclean. Most of the times medical equipment like X-ray machine, MRT, CT scan etc. do not work properly and people attending the patients are to run outside to private service providers for different jobs. One of the most appalling incidents that take place quite often is that new born babies are stolen in broad daylight in presence of doctors, nurses and other staff. This goes to indicate the state of security inside government hospitals. During power outage, patients suffer a lot because the generator usually does not work. The public hospitals must be salvaged from the existing perilous state if we want to ensure better health care to our people.
Sazzad Ahmed
East West University
sazzadahmed30@gmail.com