Prof. Sen on public healthcare

We are indeed happy that the Noble laureate during his current visit to Bangladesh has given his insight on a number of other issues of vital concern facing the country, with public healthcare services being one of them. Prof. Sen has rightly pointed out that the "affordability" is the prime factor in gaining access to healthcare services by the majority of the people.

As much as we do appreciate and understand the concerns expressed by him and the suggestions made, we would also like to point out that the rise of the private sector in public healthcare services has a different dimension in Bangladesh compared to other countries. The growth of the private sector in healthcare services in Bangladesh is a relatively recent phenomenon. The growth of the sector here has come about mainly due to poor services at government managed facilities.

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It is therefore our belief that, at least for now, the private and the public sector should run simultaneously in providing healthcare services, especially until such time the public healthcare services develop their capacities and are free from mismanagement and corruption. Besides in assessing the situation it should also be remembered that adequate and quality healthcare and other medical services in general are a costly enterprise all over the world anyway.

The observations made by Prof. Sen deserve serious considerations, especially from a humanitarian standpoint. At some point of time we should and must strike a healthy balance between the private sector and the public sector facilities. It is not a question of either/or, rather the two sectors should operate efficiently to offer better medicare facilities to people and complement each other.