Many solvent patients go abroad for treatment:Daily Sun

 A large number of patients, particularly those who are suffering from serious diseases, go abroad every year for treatment as they cannot keep their trust in the country’s health service providers. Sources said more than 325,000 people, mostly affluent, travel to different countries, including Singapore, Thailand, India, Malaysia and China, for treatment spending a large amount of money. Public h
ealth experts of the country have expressed their concern over the issue, saying that more patients will go abroad for treatment in future if their trust is not restored in the service delivery system. Prof Dr Rashid-E-Mahbub, former president of Bangladesh Medical Association, said, “We have to restore patients’ trust in the country’s healthcare institutes by rendering qualitative healthcare services to them. If we can do it, then people will stay here and receive medical services from the country’s health institutes.” Patients with complicated diseases like open heart surgery, kidney transplantation and liver cirrhosis go abroad for better treatment but the private and public health sector of the country is providing treatment to such patients, he said. Some of the private hospitals have been carrying out these surgeries successfully in the country for a few years and many of such patients are well after surgeries, he said. He called upon the government and private sector to go for a holistic approach to scale up their service system in a bid to restore patients’ trust in the country’s healthcare institutes which can help keep a large of money in the country. A senior clinician of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University said private hospitals take about Tk 750,000 to Tk 800,000 for an open-heart surgery but the same treatment costs only Tk 400,000 in Bangalore of India, he said. “If our private health sector considers the issue of treatment cost, then people can receive treatment here at a low cost than India, Thailand and Singapore and save a portion of their money,” he added. When contacted, Director (Hospital) of Directorate of Health Services Dr Abdul Hannan said the government hospitals provide comparatively better services but these hospitals remain fully packed with low- and middle-income people. “We have some private hospitals which provide quality treatment but their costs are excessively high,” he added.