Health and Family Welfare Minister Sardar Md Sakhawat Husain on Wednesday warned government hospital staff against referring patients to private clinics in exchange for commissions.
He issued the warning at an event at the International Mother Language Institute in the capital, where a joint study by the Health Economics Unit and the Power and Participation Research Centre was released.
The minister said the main crisis in the health sector was not a lack of funding, but a shortage of honesty and professional ethics.
No reform would be sustainable unless the sector addressed negligence and unethical practices, he said. Sakhawat also strongly criticised syndicates involved in manipulating tenders and the unplanned purchase of medical equipment worth crores of taka that was later left unused.
The study found that administrative complexities and staff shortages were preventing public health facilities from providing adequate medicines and services.
Only 22.7 per cent of essential medicines were available at upazila-level facilities, while 40 per cent of medical technologist posts remained vacant, according to the report.
Highlighting government initiatives to overhaul the health sector, the minister said every upazila hospital would be upgraded to 101 beds.
Dialysis units would also be installed at district hospitals and medical college hospitals, while cancer and children’s hospitals would be built in divisional cities.
The government was also working to establish specialised hospitals with Chinese assistance, he said.
To strengthen maternal healthcare and primary services, the government plans to recruit one lakh health workers, including around 80,000 female midwives.
A new nationwide family planning programme will begin in October, the minister added.
