The importance of immediate coordinated efforts among multiple stakeholders is needed to eliminate existing setbacks and strengthen the present health system, experts opined on Saturday.
They said, the country has witnessed severe shortage and geographically improper distribution of health workforce.
The country is challenged by production, deployment, availability and retention of quality health workforce, they added.
Experts made these remarks while speaking on the occasion of the 4th Health policy dialogue on 'Equitable Distribution of Medical Doctors for Strengthening Universal Health Coverage’ organised by icddr,b in Dhaka.
Dr Mushtuq Husain from Co-ordination and Support Centre, Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), Government of Bangladesh welcomed the participants, while Professor Robayet Ferdous, Department of Mass Communication and Journalism, University of Dhaka, moderated the event.
In the keynote presentation, Dr Iqbal Anwar, Scientist and Project Coordinator, SHARE Project, Universal Health Coverage Programme at icddr,b highlighted the present situation of health workforce distribution in Bangladesh.
He presented several setbacks in the existing system including overly-centralised health system, weak governance and regulatory framework, weak management and institutional capacity in the MoHFW, inequitable allocation of doctors, high rate of vacancy at the Upazilla level, high number of deputation posting, inadequate amenities and lack of proper educational facilities for children of the health professionals posted in the rural areas etc.
Dr Anwar also presented relevant data from DGHS 2019, which shows that 20.4 percent vacancy against sanctioned positions of doctors that aggravates the situation of shortage of medical doctors.
Furthermore, a total of 4,749 doctors are posted as attachment (OSD) in Dhaka against the sanctioned OSD posts of 783. These have resulted in a severe shortage of doctors at the district level and below.
Discussants at the event, stressed on the importance of immediate coordinated efforts among multiple stakeholders in order to eliminate the existing setbacks and strengthen the present health system.
The Chief Guest at the dialogue Dr Prof Abul Kalam Azad, director general, DGHS also stressed on coordinated approach, saying “We have made some significant progresses, we now have data to identify gaps in the distribution of health workforce.
However, we need better coordination among stakeholders, and united approach to address the shortcomings in this sector, he added.
In the closing remark, the Chairperson of the discussion session Dr M A Faiz, Professor of Medicine, Member of Health Policy Dialogue and Ex- Director General of DGHS, MoHFW thanked the participants for their valuable comments.
He said, “The health policy dialogue has captured the recommendations discussed and will share with relevant authorities and policy makers to bring a positive change in the existing health system of the country”.
Earlier, the HPD organised three policy dialogues on themes covering ‘Achievements in the health sector and people’s expectations’, ‘Engaging Private Sector to Achieve Universal Health Coverage in Bangladesh’ and ‘Urban health and universal health coverage’. These have generated significant policy and practice recommendations.
Strengthening Health, Applying Research Evidence (SHARE) project is supported by the European Union (EU). Along with EU, the event was supported by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
