There is less than one hospital bed available for every one thousand people in the country. The number of beds available for every thousand people in government hospitals is about 0.32 while this number in private hospitals is about 0.64. The total number of beds available in government and private hospitals for every thousand people is only 0.96.
The information came up in the findings of ‘Private Healthcare Institution Survey-2019’ published by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) on Monday.
Abdul Khaleq, the project director of the survey, presented the information of the survey report to the journalists.
The critical situation of medical services in Bangladesh has come to light in this survey report of BBS. According to the recommendations of World Health Organization (WHO), there should be 3.5 beds available for every one thousand people. The number of beds available in public and private hospitals of the country is much less compared to the WHO standard.
According to the survey report, there is only 0.85 nurse available to assist a doctor (excluding dental surgeons). Including dental surgeons, the number of nurses is 0.83. One nurse is responsible for 3.47 beds in the country.
According to the Department of Health, as of June 2018, there were 16,979 healthcare institutions in the private sector of Bangladesh. Of these, 10,291 (60.61 percent) are diagnostic centers, 4,452 are hospitals (26.22 percent) and 1,397 are medical clinics (8.23 percent). On the other hand, the number of dental clinics is 839 (4.99 percent).
Highlighting the picture of employment in private healthcare institutions, the survey report said that as of June 30, 2018, there were 368,580 workers in 16,979 healthcare institutions. Of these, 315,941 people (85.72 percent) are full time and 52 thousand 639 people (14.28 percent) are part time workers. Out of the total manpower, some 56.32 percent were employed in hospitals, 36.79 percent in diagnostic centers and 5.7 percent in clinics. The manpower employed in dental clinics is 1.19 percent.
