An increasing number of Bangladeshi patients flock to neighbouring countries, including India, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia for ‘better treatment’ draining out foreign exchange.
Thousands of patients, including politicians, go abroad every year for even ordinary medical treatment while doctors have said that Bangladesh has almost all the medical facilities, health rights activists said.
Patients going abroad, however, said that they lacked confidence in the healthcare providers here.
Health rights activists also blamed behavioural problems and commercial mentality of the health service providers for the situation.
Health economists said that the outbound medical tourism was draining out huge foreign currencies but there was no policy or mechanism for overcoming the situation.
There is no national data on patients going abroad for treatment. Health ministry’s health economics unit director general Ashadul Islam admitted that outbound medical tourism from Bangladesh was on the rise.
He said that the health economics unit would soon conduct a study to determine the reasons for patients going abroad.
According to Export of Health Services survey conducted by Directorate-General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics of India, Bangladesh was the largest foreign user of India’s health services exports in 2015-16.
Of the 460,000 inbound patients to Indian hospitals, more than 165,000 were from Bangladesh accounting for the highest export earnings of about $0.34 billion in 2015-16, said the survey.
It said that average earning per patient was $2,084 from Bangladeshi patients, the second highest next to $2,906 from Pakistani patients.
In 2016, Bangladesh unseated the United States as the origin of the highest number of foreign tourists, mostly due to medical tourism, reported New Delhi-based Business Standard.
Indian ministry of tourism data showed that 1.37 million visitors went to India from Bangladesh in 2016, up by 21 per cent from 2015.
Dhaka University health economics professor Syed Abdul Hamid termed the outbound medical tourism as just importing services in exchange of foreign currencies.
Without a major surgery, a Bangladeshi patient in Singapore or Thailand usually spend foreign currencies amounting Tk 3 lakh in a week, Hamid said, quoting an ongoing study of the Institute of Health Economics of Dhaka University.
Hospitals in Singapore, Bangkok, Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata have even opened local offices in Dhaka, Chittagong, Khulna and Sylhet to attract patients.
Offices or agencies of such foreign hospitals, including Bangkok Hospital and Bumrungrad Hospital in Thailand, Farrer Park Hospital, Mount Elizabeth Hospital, Gleneagles Hospital and Parkway Hospitals in Singapore, and Fortis Escorts Heart Institute in Kolkata, are available in a number of cities in Bangladesh, including Dhaka, Chittagong, Khulna and Sylhet.
There are about 100 offices or agencies of foreign hospitals only in Dhaka and each of them sends 10-15 patients every day to those countries, said chief executive officer Ahmed Idrisi of International Business Centre for Medical Tourism, an agency that sends patients to hospitals in Delhi, Chennai and Bangkok.
He said that his centre sent about 30 patients a day to India and Bangkok.
‘People want to have accurate diagnosis and better treatment, but Bangladeshi health service providers are not trusted by the patients,’ he said.
Bangkok Hospital’s assistant marketing manager at Dhaka office, Ivee Tripland, said that they sent 10-13 Bangladeshi patients, mostly orthopaedic, neurology and cancer patients, to Bangkok every day.
Private company executive Sadman Khan said that being disappointed by orthopaedic doctors in Dhaka, he took her mother to a Singapore hospital for treatment to his mother’s knee joint pain recently.
Mithu Islam, another private firm executive, said that he along with his wife and son went to Hyderabad in India for a tour recently when he visited a doctor there.
The doctor took only Tk 300 as fee valid for any other visits within three months while such facilities was unimaginable in Dhaka, he said.
Public health expert Gonoswasthaya Kendra trustee Zafrullah Chowdhury blamed lack of government’s policy for growing trend of patients going abroad.
Bangladesh has so far failed to develop better medical services due to lack of political commitment, he said.
He said that top political leaders used to go abroad for ordinary medical treatment which proved lack of their political commitment.
There is no noticeable government policy to develop better medical services in Bangladesh, Zafrullah said.
Political leaders including the president, prime minister and Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson frequently go abroad for treatment, he said.
Currently BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia is in London for treatment for eyes.
President Abdul Hamid was also in Singapore in the second week August for medical treatment.
Dhaka University professor Syed Abdul Hamid said that depending on medical treatment abroad was not a right approach for politicians to ensure better services to patients at home.
Local investment especially need-based government investment in health sector is needed, he said.
Zafrullah said that there were sound doctors in Bangladesh and almost all medical treatment were available here but people lacked trust in doctors and hospitals for their commercial behaviour.
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University vice-chancellor Kamrul Hasan said that the university offered almost all treatment except heart transplant.
He said that one of the reasons for patients flocking abroad was inadequate health facilities in the country as only few hospitals or institutes could provide tertiary-level treatment.
Kamrul admitted that doctors in Bangladesh were less communicative and often blamed for commercial behaviour with the patients.
There are some propaganda against Bangladeshi doctors and hospitals, he said.
Source: New Age
