Patients flock to India draining out forex [ Tritiyo Matra News ]

Patients flock to India draining out forex

Local February 11, 2017

Bangladeshi patients are flocking to India and some Asian countries because of lack of better medical facilities at home.
A number of patients and public health experts said that Bangladesh had, over the years, failed to develop better medical services, leading a large number of patients to go to India or other Asian countries like Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore as alternative choices for treatments.
Huge amount of foreign currency are being drained out because of the increasing number of outbound patients, experts said.
Indian ministry of tourism data showed that 1.37 million visitors went to India from Bangladesh in 2016, up by 21 per cent from that of 2015, reports New Delhi-based Business Standard.
‘Quality medical and healthcare facilities in India is one of the reasons for the growing number of tourists from Bangladesh,’ the report noted.
Indian government data showed that about half of 1,34,344 visas issued by India for medical treatment in 2015 went to citizens from Bangladesh. The number of medical visas increased to about 97,000 only in the first six months of 2016.
According to an earlier report of professional service firm KPMG India, the highest number of medical tourists in India go from Bangladesh (more than a fifth) because of the ‘lack of quality healthcare infrastructure and unavailability of skilled manpower’ in Bangladesh.
Health and family welfare ministry secretary Sirazul Islam, however, denied that Bangladeshi patients were going abroad for treatment only because of lack of quality health facilities in the country.
He said, ‘Quality healthcare is defined by money. It is individual’s decision depending on their financial ability whether they should go aboard for treatment,’ he said.
A number of patients who visited India for medical treatment said that they preferred to go to India as they believed that the treatment in India was better and less expensive than in Bangladesh.
They alleged that doctors in Bangladesh were not attentive to the patients.
They said that they lacked confidence in Bangladeshi doctors and feared wrong treatment and diagnosis.
Gazi Abdul Bari of Khulna shared his experience with New Age that he now used to visit Kolkata or other cities in India for the treatment of any illness as he had a bitter experience of his father-in-law’s diagnosis of cancer and subsequent wrong advice given by Bangladeshi doctors in 1980.
He said that his father-in-law was diagnosed with cancer in the throat by a noted ENT expert in Dhaka. ‘The doctor told us that he needed alternative way for breathing for cancer treatment and that might be done by piercing the chest,’ he said.
‘Doubting the advice, we went to Kolkata and he was finally treated at Kolkata with medication in a month,’ Bari said.
The doctor at Kolkata Medical College Hospital was so caring that he gave Bari’s father-in-law about an hour, he said.
‘The doctors in Kolkata seemed far more sympathetic to patients,’ Bari said.
A private farm executive, Azad Majumder, said that he decided to go to India for medical treatment as he was frustrated with Bangladeshi doctors for their behaviour.
‘A specialist even did not talk to me although I paid him Tk 1,400 for a single visit, his assistant doctor talked to me and gave a prescription, which the specialist just singed,’ he said.
Public health expert Gonoswasthaya Kendra founder Zafrullah Chowdhury said that the ‘behavioural problem of doctors’ was the main reason for the flock of patients to India.
He said that most of the doctors in Bangladesh could not develop relation with the patients.
‘Doctors in India have better communicative skill, but most of the doctors in Dhaka even don’t give five minutes to a patient,’ he said.
Political leaders and even doctors go abroad for medical treatment, which causes people to lose confidence in the doctors.
Political leaders including the president, prime minister and Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson frequently go abroad for treatment, he said.
He said that huge amount of foreign currencies were being drained out due to the trend of patients’ going abroad.
Dhaka Community Hospital Trust chairman Quazi Quamruzzaman said that there were mixed reasons for patients visiting neighbouring countries for medical treatment.
‘There is no political commitment to develop healthcare system and facilities rather the political leaders prefer to go abroad for treatment of ordinary diseases,’ he said.
Quamruzzaman also said that Bangladesh still lacked adequate and quality hospitals with latest technologies.
He said that the doctors in Bangladesh could play minimum role to gain people’s confidence, rather political commitment was essential.
Bangladesh Health Rights Movement chairman Rashid-e-Mahbub said health technology was not developing in the country keeping pace with the economic development.
He also said that there was lack of professionalism among most of the Bangladeshi doctors as doctors in government hospitals seemed to be officers, which hinders creating a good relation between patients and doctors.
Rashid added that Bangladesh lacked health facilities needed to provide health services to the 16 crore people of the country, leading the patients of bordering areas to seek treatment in India.
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University pharmacology professor Sayedur Rahman said that about 2 crore people fell ill every year in Bangladesh and the number of patients going abroad for treatment was so minimal.
He said that many patients who went India were for a ‘second check.’ When patients find that their illness have already gone beyond treatment, they go to India or other countries seeking if any last option is available, he said.
Sayedur said that it was not true that Bangladesh lacked treatment facilities which were available in India.
Most of the patients go abroad for treatment as they have financial ability, he said.
Centre for Policy Dialogue executive director Mustafizur Rahman branded patients’ going abroad for medical treatment as ‘importing service’ in exchange of foreign currencies.
‘There are hardly big investments in health sector of Bangladesh. Big investments in private healthcare sector can create employment, save foreign currencies and provide quality and affordable health services,’ he said.