Health and Family Welfare Minister Zahid Maleque today (Sunday) said the government has taken initiatives to fix medical service charges for private hospitals to make healthcare cost affordable for all.
“Out-pocket expenditure is gradually increasing as most private hospitals are charging very high from service seekers…. Service will be fixed on the basis of standard of different private hospitals,” he told a meeting on “Incorporating private sector in healthcare facilities” at his ministry, an official release said.
Secretary of Health Service Division Abdul Mannan, Director General of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Prof Dr Abul Bashar Mohammad Khurshid Alam and President of Bangladesh Private Medical Association Mubin Khan, among others, were present at the meeting.
Describing various reasons for the increase of out-pocket expenditure, the health minister said other key reasons for higher medical cost include taking medical treatment from abroad, dependency on private hospitals and price hike of medicines.
Maleque acknowledged private medical sector’s considerable contribution to providing healthcare facilities to the people alongside public hospitals.
But a section of private hospitals are charging very high from patients, creating huge financial burden on service seekers, he added.
There are huge number of clinics in the country, the health minister said adding, many clinics are not equipped enough to provide quality healthcare
services to the people.
“We are working to fix a set of conditions for all clinics in the country to ensure quality medical service,” he added
Source: BSS
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