Govt to end hospital broker racket permanently: Health Minister

Health Minister Sardar Md Sakhawat Hossain has said the BNP government will permanently stop the activities of broker networks that divert patients from public hospitals to private clinics.

The Daily Observer published a special Commentary on 'Dalals' grip in public hospitals on Tuesday. 

He also announced strict action against unnecessary diagnostic tests, irregularities in public procurement, unnecessary purchases and unjustified caesarean sections.

Speaking as the chief guest at the launch of a study titled “Addressing Gaps in Bangladesh's Public Health System: A Rapid Facility-Based Assessment of Expenditure Efficiency to Ensure Universal Health Coverage” on Wednesday, the minister said that irregularities such as referring patients to nearby private clinics while on duty at public hospitals, prescribing diagnostic tests in exchange for commissions and performing surgeries outside government facilities during official working hours would no longer be tolerated. These practices will be brought under regular monitoring.

He also said that tender documents are often designed with conditions that favour selected individuals or companies, making it difficult for most firms to compete. He also criticised the purchase of radiotherapy machines, X-ray equipment and other medical devices worth crores of taka in the past without the necessary infrastructure, leaving many of them unused and eventually inoperable.

The minister said the government's contract with a foreign company providing dialysis services will expire in November and will not be renewed. Instead, the government will procure dialysis machines on its own and is establishing 50-bed dialysis centres at every medical college hospital and 10-bed centres at every district hospital.

He also announced that, within the next three months, health workers in 10 upazilas and 90 wards will be provided with bicycles, smartphones and AI-enabled medical kits on a pilot basis. They will conduct door-to-door health screenings, including measurements of height, weight, blood pressure, blood glucose, lipid profile, RBC and CBC tests.

The minister added that regular drives involving civil surgeons and executive magistrates are underway at private clinics across the country to curb unnecessary caesarean deliveries.

The study released at the programme showed that the average budget implementation rate in 22 government health institutions in eight divisions of the country in the 2024-25 fiscal year was 85 percent. The rate was lowest in secondary-level institutions, which was 78 percent. Although 94 percent of the institutions had unspent funds at the end of the fiscal year, only 11 percent of respondents considered this to be the result of financial irregularities.

The study says that the main reason for the unspent money is structural weaknesses in budget management and administrative complexity rather than financial corruption.

The study also shows that spending has also been lower in sectors where decision-making opportunities at the institutional level are relatively greater. Only 27 percent of the allocation was spent on general equipment, 68 percent on travel and transfers, and 59 percent on professional services and honoraria.