Govt to fix service fees at pvt hospitals: Maleque

The health authorities will divide the private hospitals and clinics into three categories depending on their capacities and services to lessen financial burden of treatment of mass people.

Fees for the same services would also be fixed for the hospitals under the same category.

Health Minister Zahid Maleque made the statement while talking to a 20-member team of representatives of private health care owners at the ministry on Thursday afternoon.

According to a press release issued by the ministry, the minister said it is different fees set by different private hospitals, clinics and diagnostic centers in the country that have increased medical expenses.

For the same service people have to pay Tk10, 000 in one hospital and Tk50, 000 in another. Low-income people are mostly affected by this. It cannot run for long, he added.

The minister mentioned that health authorities had earlier held meetings to fix service fees in private hospitals.

“Now we are categorising the hospitals depending on their capacity and service quality. Depending on some criteria, they would be categorized into A, B and C categories.

No hospital would be allowed to provide any specific service without having required capacity, the release quoted the minister.

Zahid Maleque said if a patient who is in between life and death he/she cannot be placed in a hospital without having the required capacity to conduct Cesarean section (C-section) or any cardiac surgery.

So the health authorities are categorizing the hospitals along with fixing service rates for the interest of the mass people, he stated.

Secretary of the Health Services Division Dr Md Anwar Hossain Howlader, Director General of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Prof Dr Khurshid Alam and Additional Director General of DGHS Dr Ahmedul Kabir were, among others, present in the meeting.  

In another meeting held earlier the same day in the ministry, the minister said unregistered hospitals, clinics and health care centres would be shut down.

He said many provide treatment in rural areas without having proper certificates or being registered. These people are prescribing unnecessary antibiotics or gastric medicines causing health hazards for poor people living in villages. The unregistered, uncertified village doctors would also be barred from providing treatment, he warned.