AN effectively performing health sector is an essential precondition for the overall development of a society. Recently the Bangladesh Health Facility Survey found that, only around 25 per cent of our health facilities have some basic equipment, like stethoscope, thermometer, blood pressure apparatus, adult weighing scale, child or infant weighing scale. The most critical challenge faced by the health sector of Bangladesh is in the arena of human resources for Health. Bangladesh has approximately 60,000 doctors and a deficit of almost 140,000 Nurses. Moreover, the nurse-physician ratio in Bangladesh is one of the worst in the world. There is only one nurse for every three physicians, while the ratio should have been the other way around, which is three nurses for one physicians. According to The World Health Organization's (WHO) recommendation, three nurses per doctor means a well-functioning healthcare system. Absenteeism of key health human resources (physicians) often make matters worse. Lack of drugs, supplies and other facilities also are rampant in heath complexes. As a result, only 25 per cent of the population can avail publicly funded health care system. Managerial problem is another major problem faced by the country's health sector. Human resource department in our Health Ministry is still at a rudimentary stage. This kind of problem has been created due to lack of leadership and governance in the ministry. The public hospitals are allocated huge fund by the government every year. Are they not in a position to buy small items like thermometer or weighing machine? Most doctors do not stay at their places of posting which has been a common practice almost anywhere in Bangladesh. Bangladesh Maternal Mortality Survey (BMMS), said even the field staff at the lowest level of the Health Ministry do not work properly. For example, the government has over 4,500 family welfare visitors (FWVs) posted in rural areas. But according to the survey, the FWVs were found assisting in less than one per cent of the total delivery cases. However, the budget allocation for the health sector is not enough to ensure services for all. Services have been expanded, but the budget has decreased over the years. 8.66 percent of the total budget was made for the health sector in 1996-1997, but it dropped to 4.30 per cent of the total budget last year. But there are issues that can not be solved by money alone. Proper leadership along with proper monitoring in the health sector can help ease the problems and bring about a lot of improvement.
Sadia Tarannum
East West University
[email protected]
- Saturday, 23 November 2024 |
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