Health activists demand govt stop user fee collection

Health rights activists on Tuesday urged the government to revoke provision for user fee collection its patients in public hospitals as 'it is undemocratic, unconstitutional and inhuman.'

Government hospitals, who are state-owned health care providers, cannot charge user fee from patients, they said at a press conference on budgetary allocation for the health sector organised by Swasthya Andolan at the National Press Club in Dhaka.

Farida Akhter, executive director of the organisation, said, 'We have always been against user fee collection and we have demanded that the government should revoke the provision. But the government has

kept the provision for user fee collection in the health policy.'

Patients do not benefit from user fee and the money collected is distributed to physicians, technicians and other members on the hospital staff, she said.

She said, 'The government is going to formulate the Patient Welfare Fund Policy. This fund will be set up by collecting money from patients.'

Syed Mahbubul Alam, programme director of the Work for a Better Bangladesh Trust, said that the government had ignored prevention of diseases such as sanitation in the proposed budget.

He said, 'Public health and treatment are not

similar. But the government has not allocated any money for the prevention of diseases.'

They criticised the government for lowering budgetary allocation as the allocation in the outgoing financial year is 6 per cent while the allocation for the health sector in the budget proposed for the 2011–2012 financial year is 5.9 per cent.

They said that the government had proposed allocation of money for telemedicine. But in Bangladesh where patients do not get the service directly in the hospital, how the government would ensure telemedicine for patients, they said.

They demanded that the government should reconsider the health sector allocation and take steps to ensure health care for the mass people.

They also demanded specific allocation for the prevention of diseases, workers' health and priority for mental health in the proposed budget.

Paediatrician Mesbah Uddin Ahmed, among others, attended.

Source : New Age