Calls for government to regulate private hospitals in Bangladesh

An appalling incident at the Japan-Bangladesh Friendship Hospital in Dhaka has underscored the need for a mechanism to regulate the private health sector.

A mobile court on Wednesday found the private hospital in Dhanmondi treating a child even a day after its death to present an inflated bill to its parents.
 
A fine was at once slapped on the hospital.
 
On Thursday, the High Court summoned the hospital authorities on Feb 22 to explain the matter.
 
This is not for the first time that a private hospital has been fined. Recently, a mobile court fined the Labaid, a bigger hospital, for storing unauthorised drugs.
 
Many hospitals have also been fined for illegally running ICUs.
 
Health rights activist Prof Rashid-e-Mahbub terms the trend as “criminalisation” of the health system.
 
“It calls for strong regulations and the monitoring of the private sector,” the president of the National Committee on Health Rights Movement told bdnews24.com.
 
Bangladesh had registered 13,341 private hospitals, clinics and diagnostic centres, as of Nov last year.
 
But the regulatory mechanism for private hospitals has not been updated.
 
Prof Abul Kalam Azad, Additional Director General (administrator) at the Directorate General of Health Services, acknowledged the shortcoming. 
 
“Yes, we need to update our monitoring mechanism,” he said, but added a close watch could be kept even with the help of the existing laws.
 
“The mobile courts are an outcome of our efforts,” he said.
 
He said the private sector had emerged as  “a very big and strong player” in the health sector.
 
“But the organogram of the wing (the office of the director hospital) that monitors hospitals has remained the same as it was after the Liberation”.
 
He stressed the need for a “strong regulatory mechanism so that we can inspect and take steps”.

But, in the mean time, the mobile courts would keep an eye on private hospitals, he said.
 
Prof Rashid said that many of the private hospitals did not have permanent doctors.
 
“Doctors go there on-call. That’s why they cannot offer proper emergency and ICU services,” he said.