Editorial
Hospitals running without drugs?
An eminently avoidable crisis
The healthcare system has been pushed to a crisis that could easily have been avoided with minimal coordination on the part of the health and planning ministries. As it is, the inability of the two ministries to work together has resulted in a shortage of drugs in 450 government hospitals and left 14 other operational plans of the health ministry unfunded.Neither ministry comes out of this sorry tale with much credit. The health ministry is at fault for not submitting its budget of Tk 602 crore to the planning ministry until two months after the planning ministry had allocated funds for the fiscal year. Receiving no funding request from the health ministry, the planning ministry allocated only Tk 250 crore to the health ministry under the annual development programme (ADP). There can be no excuse for the health ministry's lack of timeliness in this matter. Nor is the planning ministry blameless. Even without outlines of the health ministry's plans for the fiscal year, the planning ministry could have used the previous year's healthcare expenditure as a guideline for the amount to be allocated. The Tk 250 crore allocated to the health ministry falls far short of what is necessary to satisfy the nation's crucial healthcare needs. To compound the situation, the planning ministry has to date disbursed only Tk 11.84 crore of the total amount allocated, precipitating the healthcare crisis that now exists. The planning ministry's proposed solution to the crisis seems equally unhelpful. It has reportedly suggested that the health ministry approach the donors directly to seek the Tk 64 crore of the ADP allocation that was to be donor funded. But seeking funding from donors is not the duty of the health ministry -- it is the function, one would have thought, of the external resources division of the planning ministry. The result is that the purchase of drugs in 450 government hospitals has been suspended since July 1 and the needed funding for 14 other important programmes including safe blood transfusion equipment and measures to prevent HIV transmission is unavailable. This crisis was entirely avoidable. In the future the two ministries must coordinate and make sure that the planning ministry gets the information it needs in good time so that the nation's critical healthcare costs can be met, and the planning ministry must ensure that allocated funds are disbursed as needed. But for now we would urge the government to intervene to ensure that the much-needed drugs are available to the hospitals on a priority basis.
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