Covid treatment must be made affordable to all

It is most unfortunate that two years into the pandemic, the government has still not been able to ensure proper treatment at affordable costs for Covid-19 patients. A recent study by Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) has revealed the unbelievably high difference in the treatment cost of Covid between government and private hospitals. According to the study, conducted between August 2021 and March 2022, the treatment cost was more than 12 times higher in private hospitals than that in public healthcare facilities: while the average treatment cost was Tk 35,938 in public hospitals, in private hospitals, the cost was as high as Tk 4,58,537.

The study has also revealed that about 65 percent of Covid patients—in both public and private healthcare facilities—were not provided with the required medicine, while over 33 percent didn't get specialist doctors' advice when required. The study has also highlighted the problems and complications that patients had to face due to delayed service delivery at hospitals.

Unfortunately, this is not the first time that we have come across such revelations. Last year, a similar study was conducted by the Health Economics Unit of the health ministry that found various anomalies in public and private hospitals in providing treatment to Covid patients. The issue of overcharging—for ICU beds, oxygen support, medicines and diagnostic tests—by private hospitals was highlighted in detail in that study. But has anything improved since then? Did the government take any measures to address the issues? Apparently not. The HEU study also mentioned that the private hospitals who were overcharging were actually not following the national Covid-19 treatment protocol. We wonder what even the point of having this protocol is, if the government cannot make all hospitals comply with it.

The TIB study also made a striking revelation about the cost of the government's Covid vaccination programme. It found that the cost of the programme was less than half of what the health minister claimed recently. While according to the minister, the cost was around Tk 40,000 crore, the TIB has found it to be Tk 12,993 to Tk 16,721 crore. Will the health minister clarify the matter?

While it is the government's duty to ensure proper and adequate treatment for Covid patients at affordable costs, it is also their duty to ensure that the vaccination campaigns run smoothly, without any corruption taking place. Since the issue has been raised by the TIB, we think the government now must make the cost breakdown public. There should be no secrecy regarding this. If any evidence of corruption is found, the government must take action accordingly and urgently to restore public confidence in what has been heralded as a widely successful vaccination campaign thus far.