Bangladesh loses $4b for medical treatment abroad

Reza Mahmud :
Huge numbers of Bangladeshi people are taking medical treatment abroad every year spending large amount of foreign currency creating excessive burden on our reserve.

Public health experts said many international standard health facilities have been built in Bangladesh.

There are many specialist physicians also are practicing.
In this situation, experts said the people should avoid unnecessary foreign trip for taking medical treatment while those are possible in the country.

According to Bangladesh Outbound Tour Operators Forum, on average 8,00,000 people go abroad for treatment every year from Bangladesh while India is the most favourite destination for them.

The other major destinations for Bangladeshi medical tourists are Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia. Many rich people also go to the USA, the UK and United Arab Emirates for medical treatment.

Sources said about USD 4.0 billion flies out of the country as medical expenses annually.

Meanwhile, officials from Bangladesh Bank said most of the patients go abroad for taking medical treatment are not follow the official directives.

So, the real expenditures of medical treatment abroad could not get.

“A large number of treatment seekers used to not properly endorse dollars. As a result, the real amount of expenses in this regard could not be recorded,” Md Mezbaul Haque,
the spokesperson of Bangladesh Bank told The New Nation on Tuesday.

The BBS report said 29 pc of the total Bangladeshi tourists abroad spent money on receiving treatment in different countries.

Public health experts said, factors including unprofessional behaviour from physicians and the other healthcare professionals, misdiagnosis, lack of clear explanations of health conditions, and the tendency of doctors to recommend unnecessary tests and drugs are major reasons for pushing patients going abroad.

Another major factor that plays a role in this trend is the cost of treatment. Many patients feel that the cost of medical treatment in Bangladesh is higher compared to other countries especially than India.

As a result, a large number of patients flock to India for its relatively affordable and satisfactory treatment.

When contacted, Prime Minister’s personal physician, Professor Emeritus Dr. ABM Abdullah told The New Nation, “Different reasons play role in inciting patients going abroad for taking treatment including cases of several chronic diseases which are not possible to heal within a short time.”

“Besides, crisis of trust in medical facilities and doctors also a major reason,” he said.

The Professor also said that there are huge numbers of patients in the country while the hospitals beds are not found vacant.

As a result, some patients who are financially solvent used to go abroad for their own satisfactions.

The Professor Emeritus suggested establishing more quality hospitals and providing training to more specialists’ doctors to serve more patients.

He also asked the physicians to change their behaviour to patients so that the crisis of trust might be minimized.

When contacted, Professor Dr. M. Muzaherul Huq, former Adviser of the World Health Organisation (WHO), told The New Nation, “It’s a pity that a huge amount of our hard earned foreign currency is being drained out for the healthcare of our people.”

“The most beneficiary are the hospitals of India where most of our patients go for treatment apart from holiday making tourists.
Besides, many India patients are also traveling to Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia too for taking treatment,” he said.

The experts said, the patient satisfaction within our country in our hospitals is low to our people though our hospitals are also rich with modern equipment. Some hospitals are also of international standard.

They said, the patient management needs to be improved. The costs of investigations need to be revisited while the cost of medicine needs to be reduced.

The experts suggested a proper monitoring of hospital services with inbuilt quality management of hospital care services can bring confidence of our patients while bring a quality care in our hospitals.

These might help retain our patients to avail the treatment opportunities locally which will cost less and will be affordable.

The hard earned foreign currency will be retained and contribute to better health care if health care services are properly planned, they suggested.