The health and population policy
should be formulated by developing
a community-based system and ensuring
involvement of the people the stakeholders.
The
entire health sector remains in
complete disarray in absence of
people's participation in the
health policy.
To improve the medicare service
at grassroots level, the typical
attitude of doctors towards patients
should be changed if the government's
commitment for better health for
all is to be lived up to. These recommendations
were made at the first session of
the regional consultation of the
National Policy Review Forum 2003
on 'Health and Population Policy'
held at Parjatan Motel auditorium
here yesterday.
Mizanur Rahman Minu, MP (member
of parliament), the mayor of Rajshahi
City Corporation (RCC), attended
as chief guest the first session
of the meet organised jointly
by the Centre for Policy Dialogue
(CPD), The Daily Star and the
Prothom Alo.
Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, executive
director of the CPD, delivered
the welcome address and Dr Nawshad
Fayez, research advisor of Population
Research and Development Associate,
read out a draft taskforce report
on the health and population policy
in the discussion chaired by Dr
Rejvi Sultan, the chief health
officer of the RCC.
Dr Debapriya said CPD has taken
an initiative to seek recommendations
from experts across the country
on different development policies
prior to the next general elections
and formulate policy briefs to help
the elected government for smooth
and better implementation of projects."The
government should give importance
to the recommendations of local
experts and the political leaders
should work sincerely to keep their
pre-election pledges," RCC
Mayor Mizanur Rahman observed.
He also urged for building a corruption-free
environment in health department
to achieve hundred per cent success
in government programmes. Speakers
of the dialogue also strongly criticised
the government for lacking sincerity
in developing health sector and
for failing to bring about well-equipped
medicare facilities at grassroots
level.
Dr Nawshad Fayez meanwhile said
the government in many cases could
not follow recommendations from
local experts because of its prior
agreement with different donor agencies.
Besides,
many good policies fail to attain
success due to wrong implementation
system that overlooks the necessity
of people's participation, he
said.
Giving a short picture of the
health and population situation,
he said that the use of family
planning went up since 1993 but
there was no change in the total
fertility rate. The child death
rate is 80 out of thousand children,
430 mothers die in one lakh, two-third
of mothers can not avail neo-natal
services, only six per cent children
take birth in hospitals and clinics,
50 per cent children suffer from
malnutrition and only 18 doctors
and five nurses are there for
one lakh people, he revealed.
Sayed
Alamgir Faruk, a CPD fellow and
former health secretary, observed
that autonomy and decentralisation
of health centres at upazila and
union level, NGO involvement in
government programmes and proper
supervision have become essential
for developing the health sector.
Zamat Khan, president of the Rajshahi
Protection Parishad, said that the
health system in Rajshahi has fallen
apart with the mushroom growth of
unauthorised clinics. Dr Dayem Uddin,
assistant professor of Department
of Radiology at Rajshahi Medical
College, said that the government
allocation for medicine per person
is Tk 0.25 to Tk 0.33 when a simple
paracetamol costs Tk 0.50. "There
should be a watchdog to ensure a
desired health system," remarked
Golam Sabbir Sattar Tapu, a teacher
of Rajshahi University.
