Health experts at a discussion marking the ‘Universal Health Coverage Day: 2017’ in the city recently urged the government to take necessary initiatives and increase budget in health sector to provide quality health services to all in the country for achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC). They also urged the authorities concerned to bring the alternative medicine in the mainstream health system along with the modern health services as it is very cheap for people.

It is encouraging to note that the quality of healthcare has improved in the public hospitals in the country. It is evident from the services rendered at different hospitals, including the ones in the capital city. A sense of responsibility and accountability seems to have come among the doctors and others concerned along with the quantitative expansion of the hospitals located in different places of the country.

Deaths of patients due to negligence of doctors at hospitals would make newspaper headlines very often in the past. Recently this kind of incident is heard few and far between. Even the remote upazila health complexes of the country are equipped with necessary machines and medical equipments and doctors are hardly seen dodging their responsibility. All these give a positive picture of the country’s health sector.

The average lifespan of people has increased in the country. Maternity and child mortality rate has sharply declined unlike in the past. Healthcare is one of the basic human rights for the people of this country. For maintaining this right the government has to spend a huge amount of money as subsidy every year in the health sector.  

Over the past few years many hospitals have been established by affluent persons in different places in the country including the capital city but treatment at those hospitals is very much expensive and very few people can afford it. So, common people have to depend on the public hospitals for the treatment of diseases.

The present government has done a lot for the improvement of the health sector. Much more should be done. Currently in Bangladesh people spend 64 percent of total healthcare cost from their own pockets which pushes them towards poverty. Supports from all the stakeholders along with the government and positive political commitment with good governance can contribute a lot to achieve the target of health care. The number of doctors, nurses and medical technologists should be increased to achieve the goal.