Experts call for 7-8% budget allocation for health sector

The government should allocate 7-8% of the budget in FY23 for the health sector, and a large portion of that allocation should go to primary healthcare, said healthcare experts.

The authorities should discard the practice of allocating 5-6% of the national budget for healthcare, said Dr Atiur Rahman at a pre-budget online dialogue organised jointly by Bangladesh Health Watch, Brac's James P Grant School of Public Health, Brac University, and Unnayan Shamannay, on Thursday. 

Unnayan Shamannay Chair, Dr Atiur Rahman, presented the keynote paper at the programme, pointing out that usually 25% of the health sector allocations go to primary healthcare. This should be increased to 30% in the coming fiscal and raised to 35-40% within the medium term. 

"If the allocations for providing free-of-cost medicine for the people can be tripled, then the out-of-pocket health expenditure can be reduced from 68% to 58%," said Dr Atiur, a former governor of the Bangladesh Bank. 

At the programme, Dr Mushtaque Raza Chowdhury, convener of Bangladesh Health Watch, recommended establishing a national commission to ensure quality primary healthcare for all. 

State Minister for Disaster Management and Relief, Dr Md Enamur Rahman, said the government's commitment to ensure quality healthcare for all is reflected in ensuring Covid-19 vaccination for 80% of the population within a short time. 

He said if this efficiency can be replicated across the entire health sector, it will be possible to ensure quality healthcare for all in the country.

Members of Parliament, Dr AFM Ruhal Haque and Dr Habibe Millat, stressed decentralisation of healthcare management to improve services. They said Bangladesh needs at least 5 lakh doctors to serve our huge population, whereas it has only 1 lakh doctors. 

Dr Md Abdul Aziz, lawmaker and member of the parliamentary standing committee on health and family welfare, emphasised ensuring adequate services at the 493 upazila health complexes across the country. 

He said the government needs to take a step-by-step approach, instead of trying to improve conditions of all these healthcare centers at once.

At the programme, Dr Pran Gopal Dutta highlighted the need to enhance the capacity of drug administration to ensure quality control of medicines sold in local markets. He also called for budget allocation for universal health insurance.

Dr Syed Abdul Hamid, professor Dhaka University, said hospitals do not have modern storage facilities and many of the upazila health complex buildings need repairing. The budget should give due importance to those issues.