Published on Monday 13th 2008

Bangladesh Medical Association (BMA) on Monday criticised the proposed health policy and said it would not be able to ensure health care of mass people.

Staff Correspondent

Bangladesh Medical Association (BMA) on Monday criticised the proposed health policy and said it would not be able to ensure health care of mass people.
They criticised the policy at a roundtable discussion on "National Health Policy and Present Situation" held at the National Press Club yester-day. The members of the BMA as well as physicians of different organisation and other professionals also took part in the discussion.
They said proposed health policy should be implemented by the next elected democratic government where participation and opinions of people from all walks of life will be ensured.
They said, "This policy has failed to ensure the basic rights of the people. It is fully inconsistent with the people's basic rights. Besides before forming the policy, the policy makers did not consult with any professional bodies of the country and the experts who were the members of the policy formulation committee were not involved in any health related issues."
They said according to the proposed health policy government hospitals and health complexes will be turned into a private sector. As a result the people specially the poor will have to face serious difficulties in getting treatment as private hospitals will charge excess fess for providing treatment.
"We need a proper health policy which will be able to reach the medical service at the door step of the poor people. But we don't want a so-called health policy which will turn hospitals into business where all physicians will be engaged in extracting money from the patients instead of providing treatment. Government will have to be conscious about the implementation of draft health policy which will not go against the public interest," they said.
During the meeting the speakers said in the proposed health policy there is no specific guideline for the doctors and nurses to ensure their skill as well as a standard teaching curriculum.
Addressing as chief guest former Justice Abdur Rauf said national health policy is very important for the country. So government should update the policy regularly to provide healthcare facility to every citizen of the country. Besides, the government should monitor proper implementation of the policy.
Another speaker Additional Director General of Health Department Moyez Uddin Ahmed said it is very important to strengthen the drug regulatory body to ensure production of quality medicine and this drug regularity body is very important part of the national health policy.

Source: The Bangladesh Today