Health Sector Must Move Away From Unplanned Spending Culture: State Minister Muhit

State Minister for Health and Family Welfare M A Muhit has urged moving away from a culture of unplanned spending, flashy development and populist work to ensure the effective use of the large allocation for the health sector.

He made the remarks on Wednesday (28 October) as chief guest at a roundtable at Bangladesh Medical University on specific budget allocation for preventing non-communicable diseases including control of high blood pressure, and on ways to ensure access to hypertension medicine and future steps.

The state minister said the government has given the health sector its highest budget allocation of Tk 70,000 crore. He said the proper use of this large sum must be ensured, and warned that care must be taken so corruption cannot create an opportunity to misuse the allocated money.

Raising the risk of non-communicable diseases including high blood pressure, he said these diseases cannot be tackled only by buying expensive equipment or building hospital buildings. He said regular medicine supply to marginal people, greater health awareness and more investment in preventive care are essential.

The state minister noted that in the past, closing sector-wide programmes and operational plans without planning had disrupted health services at various stages, from the immunisation programme to the supply of high blood pressure medicine.

He said goodwill alone is not enough to run an administration, and that every decision has far-reaching effects.

Muhit called for another roundtable with experts to prepare specific policies and proposals to decide in what structure and method the health sector will be run in the future.