I will take a deep dive into the healthcare services of Bangladesh and compare the services between rural and urban areas in this blog post. Healthcare is a major concern for the Bangladesh, a small, developing country with a population of approximately 180 million. There is a significant disparity between rural and urban healthcare services.
Access to Healthcare Facilities
According to the Bangladesh Health Facility Survey 2014, there is a vast chasm between rural and urban areas. For a 100,000 population in urban areas, there are 3.3 hospitals, 21.9 clinics, and 6.4 diagnostic centers. In rural areas, there are 1.3 hospitals, 10.8 clinics, and 1.3 diagnostic centers for the same population (Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, 2015).
This discrepancy in healthcare facilities is due to a need for more investment in rural healthcare infrastructure. Both the public and commercial sectors are to blame. The government frequently favors the metropolitan region, while the private sector is less likely to invest in rural healthcare facilities due to lower returns on investment.
Quality of Medical Care
An important factor determining the overall health care services of a country is the quality of medical care. Sadly, in Bangladesh the quality of medical care is much inferior in rural areas than in urban areas. According to the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey 2017-18, in rural areas, only 22% of deliveries were attended by a skilled birth attendant compared to 58% in urban areas. Furthermore, for children under 5 in rural areas, only 48% received treatment for acute respiratory infection compared to 70% in urban areas (National Institute of Population Research and Training, 2019).
This disparity in medical care between urban and rural areas can be directly attributed to the shortage of healthcare workers in rural areas. Healthcare workers are attracted to work in urban areas because of higher salaries, better working conditions, and other advanced facilities which are not present in rural areas.
The scarcity of healthcare professionals in rural areas creates a challenging situation, leading to the provision of lower-quality medical care to the rural population.. This phenomenon adds more burden to the rural population because they have to travel long distances to the cities to get better healthcare.
Health Status of the Population
Another significant indicator is the population's health status. Unfortunately, the population's health status is also much worse in rural areas compared to urban areas. The Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey 2017-18 data reveals that the under-five mortality rate is 50 per 1,000 live births in rural areas, significantly higher than the corresponding figure of 31 per 1,000 live births in urban areas.
Similarly, the infant mortality rate in rural areas is 39 per 1,000 live births compared to 22 per 1,000 live births in urban areas. Lack of access to healthcare facilities, low quality of medical care, and poor health education in rural areas are some of the reasons behind this disparity.
Another significant indicator is the population's health status. Unfortunately, the population's health status is also much worse in rural areas compared to urban areas.
It is evident from the above data that in Bangladesh, there is a significant gap in the availability of healthcare services between rural and urban areas. In comparison to urban areas, rural communities have fewer healthcare facilities, less medical services, and inferior health.
To guarantee that everyone in Bangladesh has equitable access to healthcare, the government and healthcare providers should prioritize resolving this disparity. Better research is also needed in this regard.
References
- Al-Mamun, A., Rahman, M., & Hasan, M. M. (2020). Health inequalities in Bangladesh: An analysis of urban-rural differentials in healthcare utilization. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(11), 3876. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17113876
- Ahmed, S. M., Hossain, M. A., & RajaChowdhury, A. M. (2017). Health care in Bangladesh: Impressing forward. Globalization and Health, 13(1), 1-5. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12992-017-0282-2
- Islam, M. J., Hasan, M. M., & Hossain, M. B. (2020). Inequalities in maternal healthcare utilization in Bangladesh: A decomposition analysis. BMC Public Health, 20(1), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-09517-w
- Hossain, M. S., & Tasnim, T. (2021). Maternal healthcare utilization in Bangladesh: Trends and determinants. Journal of Health Research, 35(1), 63-76. https://doi.org/10.1108/JHR-02-2020-0032