The Path to Universal Health Coverage in Bangladesh: Bridging the Gap of Human Resources for Health

Abstract

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Universal Health Coverage in Bangladesh: Activities, Challenges, and Suggestions

“…Different aspects of health workforce crisis (e.g., absolute shortage, under performance, skill-mix imbalance, difficulty in rural retention, lack of responsiveness) have been widely documented by Ahmed, Hossain, Chowdhury, and Bhuiya [36], Rawal, Joarder, and Mahmud [37], and Joarder, George, Sarker, Ahmed, and Peters [38] among others. The World Bank commissioned a full-fledged study examining the human resources for health (HRH) issues related to UHC in Bangladesh, in which they identified the challenges, and proposed specific policy options [29]. Lapse in monitoring and supervision, especially that in case of HRH, has been pointed out in other studies too [3,29].…”

“…The World Bank commissioned a full-fledged study examining the human resources for health (HRH) issues related to UHC in Bangladesh, in which they identified the challenges, and proposed specific policy options [29]. Lapse in monitoring and supervision, especially that in case of HRH, has been pointed out in other studies too [3,29]. Mehl and Labrique [39] suggested prioritizing integrated health strategies to improve the monitoring and evaluation, drawing upon examples from India and Bangladesh.…”

“…It proposed three guiding principles for attaining UHC: quality, equity, and efficiency across health services. Apart from these government documents, many nongovernment ones, such as 'Bangladesh Health Watch Report 2011: Moving Towards Universal Health Coverage' [28], and 'The Path to Universal Health Care in Bangladesh: Bridging the Gap of Human Resources for Health' [29], advocated for creating greater demand for UHC and quality primary health care (PHC) among the community through support from the civil society.…”

Telemedicine: an ICT based healthcare approach to ensure health service for all

“…The country has committed to achieving universal health coverage (UHC) by 2032 through increasing its coverage as well as improving the service quality. 2 Despite enormous efforts, healthcare service is still an intimidating challenge area of Bangladesh healthcare systems. According to WHO, "Bangladesh suffers from both a shortage of and geographic mal-distribution of HRH (human resource for health).…”

Substitution Reduced Health Work Force Syndrome: A Way Forward for Developing Countries

“…Other role substitution examples include training respiratory therapists to perform EEGs and medical technologists to perform certain radiological procedures. Role delegation involves transferring certain responsibilities or tasks from one grade to another by breaking down traditional job demarcations [3].…”