Dr. Muhammad Mahtab Hossain Mazed

Healthcare is a fundamental human right. When a citizen falls ill, receiving medical treatment is not a favor; it is one of the fundamental responsibilities of the state. A country's economic development, human resources, productivity, social stability, and quality of life are all directly linked to its healthcare system. A state that can ensure the health and well-being of its citizens can build a strong human resource base and establish the foundation for sustainable development.

Bangladesh's healthcare sector has been progressing through numerous challenges for many years. Shortages of doctors and healthcare professionals, excessive patient pressure on public hospitals, disparities in healthcare between rural and urban areas, rising medical expenses, shortages of essential medicines, high diagnostic costs, limited access to specialized treatment, and weaknesses in management have created major barriers to healthcare access for ordinary people.

Against this backdrop, the current government's initiatives to prioritize the health sector have created new expectations. In the proposed budget for the 2026–27 fiscal year, Tk 69,409 crore has been proposed for the health sector, nearly double the revised allocation of the previous fiscal year. The government has also announced plans to increase health-sector allocations further over the coming years.
Now, the priority should be to connect these funds and plans with the real needs of the people. The success of the health sector will not be measured by the size of the budget alone; it will ultimately be judged by people's access to healthcare, affordability, quality of services, and satisfaction.

From Commitments to Visible Implementation
The most important aspect of health reform is turning announcements into reality. Bangladesh has undertaken many major healthcare projects at different times in the past. However, some projects have faced delays, cost overruns, or complaints about failing to deliver the expected services.

This time, clear objectives must be established from the very beginning of every project. It should be transparent how many people will benefit, within what timeframe the project will be completed, and what types of services will be provided.

Healthcare Must Reach People's Doorsteps
A Dhaka-centered healthcare system is one of Bangladesh's major challenges. A rural patient often has to travel to a district town or even the capital for basic treatment. This consumes both time and money while increasing pressure on major hospitals.

Strengthening primary healthcare at the upazila and union levels is therefore extremely important. If every upazila health complex is equipped with adequate doctors, nurses, medicines, laboratory facilities, and emergency services, pressure on district and divisional hospitals can be significantly reduced.

Give the Highest Priority to Primary Healthcare
The foundation of a modern healthcare system is primary healthcare. Instead of waiting until people become seriously ill before seeking treatment, regular health checkups, disease prevention, and health awareness can help detect many conditions at an early stage.
Facilities for early detection of hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease, and various types of cancer should be strengthened at the upazila and community levels.

The Plan to Recruit 5,000 Doctors and 100,000 Health Workers
The quality of healthcare largely depends on skilled human resources. Government hospitals continue to face shortages of doctors, nurses, medical technologists, pharmacists, midwives, and other healthcare professionals.
The government's plan to recruit additional doctors and health workers should be implemented quickly. This would strengthen the capacity of the healthcare system. However, proper deployment is just as important as recruitment. Increasing the number of health professionals only in major cities will not solve the crisis in remote areas.

Retaining Doctors in Rural Areas
Even when doctors are posted to rural health centers, it can be difficult for them to remain there for the long term. Housing, security, children's education, transportation, and limited professional opportunities are among the major challenges.

Therefore, healthcare workers serving in remote areas should receive better accommodation, security, training opportunities, career benefits, and appropriate incentives. This would help create greater stability in rural healthcare services.

Reducing Medical Expenses Is Essential
A serious illness can push an entire family into financial hardship. Treatment for cancer, heart disease, kidney disease, and other chronic conditions is often beyond the financial capacity of many families.

One of the key objectives of health reform should therefore be to reduce out-of-pocket healthcare expenditure. Alongside providing essential medicines, diagnostic services, and treatment free of charge or at affordable prices in public hospitals, effective health protection programs should be introduced for low-income people.

Discipline in the Medicine Market
For many families, medicines account for a significant portion of healthcare expenses. It is therefore essential to keep the prices of essential medicines reasonable, ensure quality, and prevent artificial shortages or excessive profiteering in the market.

The supply system for essential medicines in government hospitals must also be made more efficient. A digital monitoring system can track which medicines are available at which hospitals and which medicines are running out.

Restoring Public Confidence in Government Hospitals
Government hospitals are the primary source of healthcare for low- and middle-income people. Improving patient services in these institutions is therefore essential.

Strong action must be taken against brokers, unnecessary diagnostic tests, patient harassment, mistreatment, and irregularities involving medicines. At the same time, effective mechanisms should be established to receive and resolve patient complaints promptly.

E-Health and Digital Healthcare
Digital technology can make healthcare faster and more integrated. If a patient's medical history, test results, and essential health information are securely stored in a digital system, doctors can make decisions more quickly.

The introduction of e-health cards and digital health records could reduce the need for patients to repeat the same diagnostic tests unnecessarily. However, the confidentiality of personal health information and cybersecurity must be strictly ensured.

Expanding Telemedicine
Telemedicine can play an important role in bringing specialist healthcare to remote and hard-to-reach areas of Bangladesh. If upazila health complexes can communicate with specialist doctors at district hospitals or medical colleges, many patients will not need to travel long distances unnecessarily.

However, telemedicine must complement, rather than replace, physical examinations and emergency medical services.

Prioritizing Maternal and Child Health
The future of a country depends greatly on the health of mothers and children. Antenatal care, safe childbirth, trained birth attendants, postnatal care, and newborn services must be strengthened.

Effective emergency obstetric care and rapid referral systems are particularly important in rural areas. At the same time, preventing malnutrition and ensuring regular health checkups for children should become integral parts of primary healthcare.

Special Attention to Women's Healthcare
Women's healthcare is not limited to maternity. Accessible services are needed for menstrual health, reproductive health, anemia, hormonal disorders, cancer screening, and various age-related health risks.

Ensuring women-friendly healthcare services at district and upazila levels would enable many women to receive timely treatment.

Tackling Non-Communicable Diseases
The burden of non-communicable diseases in Bangladesh is increasing. Diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, cancer, and kidney disease require long-term and often expensive treatment.

Therefore, in addition to treating diseases after they occur, greater emphasis must be placed on lifestyle changes, healthy diets, tobacco-control programs, regular health checkups, and public awareness.

Mental Health Must Not Be Neglected
Mental health is an integral part of overall health. Mental stress and anxiety among students, young people, working adults, and older people deserve greater attention.

Basic mental health services can be incorporated into primary healthcare facilities, along with referral systems for patients who require specialized care.

Strengthening Emergency and Ambulance Services
In accidents, strokes, heart attacks, pregnancy-related complications, and other emergencies, timely access to treatment can save lives.
An integrated referral system from upazila to district and from district to medical college hospitals, along with adequate ambulances and emergency communication systems, must be ensured. Ambulance services should be viewed not merely as transportation but as an integral part of emergency medical care.

Doctor-Patient Relationships Must Be Humane
Doctors are a source of trust for patients. When people are ill, they often experience fear and anxiety. Therefore, in addition to professional competence, compassionate behavior is also important.

At the same time, doctors' safety and professional dignity must be protected. Restoring trust in the healthcare system requires a balance between patients' rights and healthcare professionals' professional rights.

A Firm Stand Against Corruption and Waste
Greater budgetary allocations to the health sector also increase the responsibility to prevent irregularities and waste. Transparency must be ensured in hospital construction, procurement of equipment, medicine supply, and project implementation.

Regularly publishing information about how much money has been allocated to each project, how much has been spent, and what benefits the public has received would strengthen accountability.

Effective Use of the Health Budget
Increased allocation is certainly positive. However, spending the full allocation on time and in the appropriate areas is even more important. A proper balance must be maintained between development expenditure and operational expenditure in the health sector.
Instead of investing excessively in unnecessary infrastructure, greater investment should be directed toward essential human resources, medicines, equipment, training, and patient services.

Oversight of the Private Healthcare Sector
Private hospitals and diagnostic centers play an important role in Bangladesh's healthcare system. However, effective regulation is necessary to ensure service quality, the rational use of diagnostic tests, reasonable treatment costs, and patients' rights.
Quality institutions should be encouraged, while action should be taken against institutions that violate established rules.

Ensuring Public Participation
The healthcare system is not solely the responsibility of the ministry or hospital authorities. Patients, doctors, nurses, healthcare workers, researchers, local government, civil society, and the media all have important roles to play.
Giving proper importance to public complaints and suggestions in policymaking would make health reform more realistic and people-oriented.

A Major Opportunity Ahead
The current government has an important opportunity to reshape the health sector. If increased funding, recruitment of health workers, expansion of primary healthcare, digital healthcare, efforts to reduce medical costs, and infrastructure development are implemented in an integrated manner, significant improvements can be achieved in Bangladesh's healthcare system.

However, people no longer want to hear only announcements; they want to see visible results. A farmer should be able to receive treatment close to home. A working-class person should not have to stop treatment because of financial hardship. A mother should have access to safe maternal healthcare. A child should receive timely treatment. An elderly person should be able to receive necessary healthcare with dignity.
These should be the true measures of the success of health reform.

In conclusion, healthcare is a right, not a favor. The state's health policies will be successful only when their benefits are felt by the most vulnerable members of society.

The current government therefore has an opportunity not merely to increase health-sector funding, but to build a people-centered, affordable, modern, and accountable healthcare system.

Making this opportunity a reality will require political commitment, efficient administration, sound planning, a firm stance against corruption, and continuous evaluation. Every taka allocated to the health sector must be spent in a way that produces visible results—not merely in hospital buildings, but in people's health, access to treatment, and quality of life.

The people's expectation is simple: healthcare should not be beyond their reach; illness should not push a family into financial ruin; and the state's healthcare system should genuinely stand beside its people.

Therefore, the government's greatest responsibility now is to move health reform beyond announcements and into meaningful implementation.

Author: Columnist and Public Health Analyst
Founder and Chairman: Jatiya rogi Kalyan Society
Email: drmazed96@gmail.com