Private hospitals charge 12 times higher than government ones

A Covid-19 patient has to spend over Tk 450,000 for treatment at a private hospital, which is 12 times higher than that of government ones at Tk 36,000.

The expenditure includes the accommodation, ICU, Oxygen and other facilities in the hospital.

Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) came up with the findings of a research titled ‘Good governance in overcoming the coronavirus crisis: the challenges of inclusion and transparency’ at a press briefing on Tuesday morning.

According to the research findings, around 22 per cent of people have to face multifaceted problems while taking treatment at the hospital. Of them, nearly 65 per cent of patients didn’t receive the necessary medicines and over 33 per cent lacked the emergency services from the specialists.

The service seekers had to wait an average three and half hours to get the bed after reaching the hospital while 15 per cent of patients didn’t receive the oxygen facility whenever they needed.

Twelve per cent of Covid-19 patients had to pay an extra fee, ranging from Tk 400 to Tk 10,000, while admitted in the government hospitals. The reasons behind taking treatment from the private medicals include the availability of specialist physicians and the ICU facility.

Even after the two years of the coronavirus pandemic, there is a shortcoming in collecting Covid-19 samples in the country due to the shortage of laboratories and their capabilities.

Around 26 per cent of participants of this survey claimed they faced problems while providing samples to the booths. About 69 per cent of participants said health guidelines were ignored while collecting samples from the people.

Two and half days were needed to receive the coronavirus sample report. Some even waited the maximum nine days for the report.