Addressed Problems

High Out of Pocket Payment, Improper Healthcare Management, No Insurance Policy, Low Quality Healthcare, Ineffective Healthcare Awareness, and Lack of Proper Health Care Workers in Rural Areas. 

Healthcare is one of the most fundamental infrastructures for the development of any nation. People especially those in the rural areas of Bangladesh do not get the best health care. To fix this, the new government should focus on 6 main areas:

1. Universal Healthcare System

People of Bangladesh get to access basic health care services given by the government regardless of their financial status. This refers to sick and well check-ups, urgent and accident care and ongoing conditions such as diabetic or cardiac care. Others cannot access the healthcare care they need today and end up with untreated conditions and generally bad health. Through having eliminating paid services in obtaining healthcare, the government will be in a position to enhance the health of the citizens. The well-being of people results in a healthy nation; this consequently is productive to the economy and the nation.

2. Health Education and Awareness:

Both disease prevention and promotion of health are major aspects that are brought about by good education. A great number of diseases can be prevented if the populace understands how to protect their bodies by eating right, exercising, and bathing. The government should begin using publicity across the country to enhance people’s awareness of these matters. Especially in terms of Grassroots. Such campaigns should be started through; social media, and TV, and they should be taken to the community centers so that even those in the rural areas can benefit from the information that is being disseminated. The improvement of the outlook and perceptions of the people towards their health would in the long run lower the incidents of diseases that ought to be prevented. 

3. Investment in Healthcare Infrastructure:

To ensure that every citizen gains access to health professionals, the government has to put up more health facilities and enhance the existing infrastructure; primarily in rural settings. As it turns out, many rural points cannot find the closest hospital or clinic, which means that the people who live there cannot transact quickly and efficiently when it comes to emergencies and health concerns. There is a need for the government to construct more hospitals and clinics in these regions and also ensure that these facilities are fitted with advanced, and efficient technologies and staffed with highly qualified personnel such as doctors and nurses. Vertical health care means that health care infrastructure will be enhanced so that quality care can be availed to all people regardless of their location.

4. Healthcare Insurance Plans:

Besides free quality healthcare, the next important area is that of affordable healthcare insurance plans. These plans are also useful in catering for other expenses not catered for under the standard universal health care system, for instance, additional treatment procedures or stay in hospital. A second and more specific option available to the government is to provide dissimilar packages of insurance which will enable even those with limited income to get some amount of insurance. This is convenient where insurance applicants have extremely low levels of income; this will make insurance to be cheap because of subsidized costs. The government has an opportunity to ensure that citizens do not become rooted in poverty due to health expenses by involving itself in providing healthcare insurance.

5. Pay-for-Quality Care:

To enhance the general standard of health care delivery, the government should thus adopt pay for quality health care. In this system, the pay would depend on the quality of services offered by the healthcare providers instead of the quantity of work to be delivered. It would help to align the interests of the doctors and hospitals to improve the quality of services to the patient. It is seen that people would be receiving better services because they are aware that the staff is working hard to give them the best. It would also minimize the application of ineffective interventions that only drain the patient’s resources and the finances of the healthcare system.

6. Addressing Rural Retention and Brain Drain in Healthcare:

This issue of rural retention and brain drain together with other factors have dampened the ability of Bangladesh’s progress towards delivering quality healthcare, especially in rural facilities. Rural areas hardly attract many healthcare professionals because the facilities and opportunities are better in urban areas hence lack of sufficient healthcare services. To get the healthcare professionals to practice in rural health facilities, the government should make it financially rewarding with better pay, house, and other promising promotions. Also, steps should be taken to enhance working conditions of health centers in the rural areas to avail appropriate technological equipment and adequate human support in order to erase the stigma by some professionals of reluctance to work in the rural areas. As for recruitment, community integration programmes also assist in ensuring that the healthcare workers adopt the community and hence increase their retention rates. In terms of skilled human capital, the phenomenon of brain drain, which concerns the movement of highly qualified staff seeking to work in other countries offering better conditions, is also an acute problem in Bangladesh’s healthcare system. To avoid this, the government needs to focus on offering competitive remuneration packages as is considered internationally especially for the specialty jobs. Another way of retaining healthcare workers is to expand careers and progression of skills and training within Bangladesh; for instance, more advanced training and research will also encourage the healthcare workers to stay within the country. Policymakers should continue supporting national service programmes that mandate freshly trained professionals to practice in the country before considering positions elsewhere and providing positive incentives such as loan write-off or bonuses will also help in eradicating the vice. Improving the general capacity of the system and developments in infrastructures and other administrative support mechanisms will also help retain the professionals as they will be able to practice quality health care systems in existing conditions.