Most pvt hospitals have licences: DGHS

The health authorities have never been as successful as they are now to bring most of the private hospitals and clinics running across the country under proper licensing practices.

Thanks to Covid-19 that forced the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) to be strict about forcing the private facilities to come under their surveillance through licensing process. 

Covid-19 also compelled the private health care owners, who previously responded poorly, to go for online licensing and renewal system launched in 2018.

The private health facilities owners started their movement for licenses or its renewal after the JKG corruption incident came forward. Less than 20 percent hospitals might have had valid license back then, said a high official of DGHS.

Hospital and Clinic Unit of DGHS said some 15,000 private health care institutes are running across the country.

Among them, some 80 to 90 percent hospitals were got their license while initiating the centres. But after that they haven’t got them renewed for years putting the government in dark about their current situation and their validity.

According to an assessment done by icddr,b, from 2019 to 2020, with the support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), only 6 percent of 1,117 private health facilities had a valid license while 59 percent applied for a new/renewal of the license.

It means some 35 percent of the hospitals never applied for the licenses. In the assessment hospitals, clinics and diagnostic centres in the city corporations and some municipalities were included.    

The assessment also found that there were several challenges to licensing. The 1982 Ordinance neither specified a validity period nor any penalty for delay.

The data was present at a discussion programme on Tuesday afternoon by Dr Shams El Arifeen.

In the meantime, officials from Hospital and Clinics Unit of DGHS involved in the licensing process said: “Regular licensing renewal process helps us to monitor the facilities provided by the hospital every year.”

Till August 28, some 12,399 private health care institutes took licenses that means over 82 percent of the private facilities has now valid licenses.

According to the unit, some 17,265 licenses of hospitals, clinics, diagnostic centres and blood banks were issued till the date.

Besides, some 1,934 health facilities are waiting for inspection for new licenses while some 2,905 facilities are waiting for inspection for their renewal licenses.

Dr Shams El Arifeen also mentioned that facility owners also highlighted their reasons for licensing delays including short validity of license, multiple clearances requirement from authorities and limited technical capacity of smaller facilities to process applications and so on.

When contacted Director (Hospital and Clinic Unit) Dr Belal Hossain who has recently joined the unit said: “It is very true that Covid-19 has forced us to ensure valid licenses for all the private hospitals and to ensure strong surveillance.”

An official willing to be unnamed said it is a common scenario in the unit that many owner or their representatives are visiting them to learn about the nominal mistakes causing delay of the renewal.