The country’s health system has reached a point “beyond repair” due to wrong planning and corruption of the previous government, State Minister for Health MA Muhit said on Sunday, adding that isolated minor repairs cannot restructure the sector.
Speaking as chief guest at a national seminar titled “Government’s Priorities and Challenges in the Health and Nutrition Sector to Build a Healthy Bangladesh” at Dhaka Club, the state minister said the current system has surpassed the scope of ordinary repair, but the government has taken this as a challenge and begun working to build a healthy Bangladesh.
Referring to the recent measles outbreak, Muhit said if grassroots health development, disease prevention, and timely vaccination had been ensured, children would not need ventilators today.
“Currently, there is virtually no quality healthcare left. When a vaccine-preventable disease spreads, as a public health worker, I understand that there is very little doctors can do. This is essentially a long-term accumulated failure of our primary healthcare system,” he said.
The state minister noted that wrong policies can cause the deaths of hundreds of children, and the burden of policy failures of the previous interim government is still being borne by this sector.
“No maintenance work was done at the field level during the previous administration, which has completely broken down the service system of hospitals,” he said.
Muhit described the current situation as both dire and a huge opportunity, saying the government is standing on the “sky-high expectations” created by the mass uprising.
The government is giving highest importance to primary healthcare, with special emphasis on prevention, he said, adding that the prime minister is personally focusing on raising health awareness.
“If we can make the general public aware and bring positive changes to their lifestyles, the burden of non-communicable diseases will be significantly reduced,” he said.
Criticising the previous government, Muhit said no past government has formulated a concrete plan through months of discussions with experts long before taking office, but the current government has completed that “homework” to ensure sustainable change.
The seminar was also addressed by BNP Chairperson’s Advisory Council member Zia Haider, Bangladesh Medical Research Council director Kazi Saifuddin Bennoor, and other health officials.
