Editorial
Healthcare in govt. hospitals
An inspecting body needed to ensure that it reaches the poor
The poor and underprivileged are being denied their natural rights to free and state subsidized health care in government hospitals. The government allocates funds to these hospitals but unfortunately, according to the National Human Rights Commission, these funds are not benefiting the poor.
The question therefore is: where and to whom are these funds going? Some aberrant examples of this mismanagement of funds includes the absence of doctors, no provision of medications, poor quality of food and unhygienic hospital conditions, just to name a few. The abject poverty of the patients in question, who have difficulties in even buying food, prevents them from buying medication which are supposed to be provided for them by government hospitals. Some of the medicines meant for the poor find their way into the black market.
The poverty-stricken people of Bangladesh have every right to proper health care services and there is an urgent need for a government body which oversees such matters and ensures that the poor are properly taken care of in medical facilities. There is a huge disparity between health care the upper and upper middle classes receive because they are able to afford it and that for the poorer classes. This should certainly not be the case.
Inspections are required to ensure the quality of services in government hospitals, as well as daily in-patient and out-patient charts to monitor logistics of patient care. This should be obligatory for the health care provider under RTI (Right To Information) Act.
There is an urgency in this matter that the government will hopefully not ignore. Good and proper health care will only be a benefit for the entire country.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments