THE government鈥檚 allowing physicians of public hospitals to see patients in private sessions in respective hospitals after duty hours, which began in March 2023, has largely stalled in two years and a half. Health managers say that the plan was put into action in at least 170 hospitals, but the system somehow functions in only about 30 of the hospitals. The services closed mostly after the 2024 political changeover. The proposition was meant to help hospitals to earn some money and allow physicians and others on the staff to earn some to supplement their income derived from public services. It was thought that the arrangement would eliminate the dual practice by physicians in the public sector which is viewed as detrimental to public-sector health services, more so at the secondary and tertiary level hospitals. Health rights campaigners view that the initiative to allow government physicians to see patients in their respective institutions for fees has the potential to ease the burden of high healthcare costs, especially for ordinary people and in private healthcare entities. The system, which was meant to come into force on March 1, 2023, had an initial hiccup, which delayed its introduction.
This present stalemate, as well as its initial delay in 2023 largely because of the government鈥檚 failure to set the physicians鈥� office visit cost and to decide the hospitals where physicians would see patients in private sessions, is not surprising as the service-oriented moves that the government often plans to benefit people have hardly got off the ground smoothly or have died down after the initial furore. Health rights campaigners put the failure at hand down to an unplanned roll-out, the shortage of physicians, mismanagement and political indecision. The Directorate General of Health Services says that it could not continue with the initiative as hospitals already struggle with the shortage of physicians, noting that the government has remained indecisive about its future. Here lies the crux of the problem. The Bangladesh Medical University on October 1, 2011 introduced a system for its professors and assistant professors of some departments to see patients for three hours every day after duty hours. In the case at hand that petered out, the government made the decision in January 2023 and the arrangement had been in force, in some cases, for two years and a half since March that year. And yet, the government appears to be undecided about the arrangement.
The arrangement allowed the poor and fixed-income people to see good doctors at low cost and stopped them from spending on expensive private health care. The government should, therefore, reintroduce the system and integrate, if possible, diagnostic and other services with it.
