22% of hospitalised COVID patients in Bangladesh faced irregularities: TIB

More than 22 percent of the hospitalised COVID-19 patients in Bangladesh faced irregularities at the healthcare facilities, according to a study by Transparency International Bangladesh.

They paid Tk 400 to Tk 10,000 extra and suffered for employees’ misbehaviour and indifference to providing information at the state-run hospitals while agents pushed patients to take treatment at private facilities, the TIB said in the report published on Tuesday.

Among the 22.2 percent of patients who faced irregularities, 61 percent experienced a delay, 34.1 percent reported absence or negligence of the staff, misbehaving and non-cooperation, and 24.4 percent did not get information about services.

In addition to that, 12.2% paid additional charges and faced harassment by the agents, according to the report.

TIB said 15 percent of the patients faced irregularities during coronavirus tests while 26.1 percent faced problems while giving samples.

The survey found that health protocols were not maintained at 68.6 percent COVID-19 testing centres; 17.3 percent of patients returned home after facing delay while giving samples and 16.7 percent faced misbehaving and 10.3 percent were forced to visit the centres multiple times.

The average waiting time for a test report was 2.5 days and maximum 9 days, according to the survey.

“A lack of laboratories, overcrowding, complexity in providing samples, and extra cost discouraged people, especially the poor and marginalised, to take COVID-19 test,” said TIB Executive Director Iftekharuzzaman.

Due to the unavailability of ICU facilities in their own districts, 18.9 percent patients with severe symptoms needed to receive services from other districts. Another 14.9 percent of patients faced a delay in getting oxygen in case of emergency and 1.7 percent never had oxygen support, 15 percent did not get an immediate ventilation facility when required, the TIB report said. Another 13.8 percent of the patients did not receive ICU services on time and 9 percent never received the ICU facilities they needed.

Delay in treatment caused the death of 7.8 of the patients and increased the complications for 11.6 percent, the TIB said.

It conducted the survey over the phone with 1,850 COVID-19 service recipients from 44 districts and recipients from 105 vaccine centres in 43 districts where respondents were selected randomly.

Among the 45 vaccination centres, 31 were not friendly to people with special needs, according to the survey.