Bangladesh lags behind neighbours in doctor-people ratio

Bangladesh is facing huge shortage of physicians and lagging behind most of the neighbouring and south Asian countries in regards to ratio of doctor to people. Bangladesh is far away from the World Health Organisation recommended doctor to patient ratio, one doctor for every 1,000 people. Experts said that the country now needed more than 1.5 lakh qualified doctors for ensuring health services for all. There are now about 65,000 doctors registered with the Bangladesh Medical and Dental Council, said the council registrar Zahidul Haq Basunia. According to the website of the Directorate General of Health Services, 51.94 per cent of the approved posts of physicians and other medical personnel are now vacant in various government facilities. According to the data posted in the website of WHO, Bangladesh has only one doctor for every 2,808 people. The health bulletin published by the Directorate General of Health Services in 2013, however, showed that there was one doctor for every 3,297 people in the country. According to WHO, there is one doctor for every 706 people in Maldives, 1,424 in India, 1,470 in Sri Lanka, 1,209 in Pakistan and 1,633 in Myanmar. The country cannot produce adequate number of doctors due to lack of facilities and capacity of the medical colleges both in public and private sectors, said Bangladesh Medical Association former president Rashid-e-Mahbub and incumbent secretary general M Iqbal Arslan. Rashid-e-Mahbub said, ‘The situation is worse in rural areas, as majority doctors work in urban areas and do not want to stay at village.’ According to the health bulletin 2013, there are about 7,500 seats for MBBS courses at public and private medical colleges. Health services directorate officials, however, said that among about 5,000 of the medical students could complete their course in every year. A comprehensive strategy is needed to address the issue without establishing new medical colleges, as most of the private medical colleges cannot teach and train the medical students properly, said Rashid-e-Mahbub.