Cost of treatment in private hospitals and health centres must come under supervision

Editorial Desk :
There is no doubt that most private hospitals and diagnostic centres of Bangladesh charge more than what they should reasonably do. More often than not, doctors prescribe costly diagnostic tests and treatment procedures that are not necessary at all. Think about C-section deliveries. According to the WHO guideline, when a country is, at best, permitted to do C-section in 15 percent of total deliveries, for Bangladesh the figure is 33.22. The last 14 years has seen an eightfold increase in the C-section births. In many cases, it is alleged that even the more invasive heart bypass surgery is performed when it is not necessary.
Since there is no government control over what is thought to be a ‘lucrative business’ of private hospitals and diagnostic centres, it is virtually an anarchy that is prevailing in Bangladesh as far as exacting fees or charges by these facilities are concerned. Against this backdrop we welcome the government decision to fix the treatment charges of private hospitals.
Quoting Health Minister Zahid Maleque, a report published in The New Nation yesterday mentioned that the health ministry has taken a plan to divide private hospitals into three categories based on their quality of treatment. These private hospitals will be labelled as A, B and C categories based on their quality of services. The costly five-star hospitals will also fall under these categories.
In these days of free market economy, many theorists may argue that such regulation of charges is a violation of principle and it would hinder competitiveness among the private health facilities. For these critics, suffice it to mention that it is in Bangladesh where during the peak period of Covid-19 pandemic, diagnostic tests results were provided to patients without conducting any test at all. Such forgery with people’s health cannot be thought of in other places in the world.  
In our country, morality and conscience do not dominate the actions of people
who are in the health business, they are also scantily found among the many so-called ‘professors’ and ‘associate professors’ doctors who charge well above Tk 1000 for a patient visit. Then there is also the nuisance of unregistered fake doctors in the country.
When this is the reality we find every reason to bring the private hospitals or centres under a network of control so that they cannot extort both in terms of treatment as well as the cost of this treatment.