IN Bangladesh when a patient meets a doctor to get rid of a disease or to reduce health-related troubles he or she has to pay high fees and bear exorbitant charges for unnecessary pathological tests. A top bureaucrat of the government gets Tk.78,000 per month, i.e., Tk.2,600 per day (on an average). On the other hand, a specialised doctor in addition to his/her regular job in a government entity earns Tk.10,000 to Tk.16,000 every evening from 20 patients @ Tk.500 to Tk.800 per visit of 10 to 15 minutes. Some doctors attend more than 20 patients every evening. Indeed, more than Tk.200 should not be charged from a patient per visit even if the doctor concerned is a specialist. A doctor can earn Tk.100,000 in 25 working days in a month in addition to regular salary and other service benefits even if he or she charges Tk.200 per patient per visit.
It is a usual complaint that at every first appointment a doctor hands a long list of diagnostic tests and many of these rests are ultimately found unnecessary. The doctors should realise from their education and experience which tests are necessary. Now the question arises, why doctors in general advise patients to conduct more tests than required? The answer is obvious. A patient is charged double the amount by diagnostic clinics and particulars of the advising doctor is noted down. It is alleged that half of the charges collected from the patients are given to the doctors concerned. Of course, there are hundreds of doctors who do not accept such money and behave rationally.
Ministry of Health should do something to change the situation. A couple of decades ago the government fixed the fees of doctors and also fixed charges for diagnostic tests. These should be enforced strictly. The present diagnostic charges of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) may be considered as the standard. The evening private practice fees fixed by BSMMU for doctors can also be fixed for other doctors as well for private practice. The fixed fees and charges should be well publicised in print and electronic media. Doctors and diagnostic clinics violating government fixed fees and test charges should be penalised according to law to enforce the government directives. This would enable most of the patients to get health services at affordable prices.
We would like to believe that doctors are not like greedy traders whose aim is to trick the customers to earn abnormal profit. The fees of the doctors are to be re-fixed at a reasonable level so that common men can visit the specialist doctors and get better treatment. The concerned authorities of the government should take necessary steps to fix charges for pathological tests, consultation fees for the doctors and enact laws to impose financial penalty for violation of the rates fixed by the government.
Md Ashraf Hossain
8/A, Rmna, Dhaka-1000
[email protected]
