TIB for oversight body to monitor private healthcare sector

Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) has urged the government to set up an oversight body for monitoring, controlling and ensuring good governance in private sector medical services.

The ongoing campaign of the department of health against illegal private healthcare institutions across the country is positive.
However, according to TIB, it is not enough to ensure the overall good governance of the sector as irregularities, corruption and mismanagement have established a long-standing cycle.

And that’s why the organisation has sought an oversight body as a long-term solution, TIB has said in a release.

Referring to the 2018 research of TIB on the challenges of good governance in the private medical sector, executive director Dr Iftekharuzzaman said, "The huge number of new licences and renewal applications submitted just one day after the government drive began proves that there is a clear lack of proper supervision in the private healthcare sector."

He said that in such a situation, it was questionable how effective the ongoing campaign will be in ensuring good governance "in the current and anarchic sector".

In order to reap the long-term benefits, the long-awaited draft law for the control and supervision of private medical services needed to be finalised and it was important to establish a strong and impartial oversight body to monitor the quality of the private healthcare sector that could ensure good governance, he said.

The report, 'Private Medical Services: Challenges of Good Governance and Ways to Overcome', elaborates how the trends of commercialisation of the sector, the profit-oriented service system, and the lack of inspection and supervision by the government have made the general people hostages to them.

TIB considers it a vital responsibility of all concerned, including the government, to take effective measures to control inhumanely corrupt people; the question of life and death is a fundamental issue in healthcare, according to the release.