They also said the government should not privatise the public health service providers or institutions.

They were speaking at a roundtable titled 'Bangladesh in next five years: Meeting the healthcare needs in a changing socio-economic scenario' jointly organised by Bangladesh Development Researchers' Forum of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) and Bangladesh Health Equity Watch (BHEW) at BIDS conference room in the city.

Addressing the function, Dr Omar Rahman, pro-vice chancellor of Independent University of Bangladesh, said the government should not exclusively provide curative services, as it is not possible to provide total health care due to lack of accountability and enforcement.

The government should assist the private providers with ensuring efficiency and equity, he added.

Simeen Mahmud, research director of BIDS, said since the quality of curative care at public facilities falls below even what poor people are willing to tolerate, most people have no option but to rely on the market to access curative health care, leading to the tremendous rise in the demand for private health care.

Dr Zafarullah Chowdhury, chairman of Gono Shasthya Nagar Hospital, urged the government to increase budgetary allocation for the health sector.

Dr AM Zakir Hussain, staff consultant of Asian Development Bank, Dr Quazi Shahabuddin, director general of BIDS, Dr Rushidan Islam Rahman, research director of BIDS, and Dr Anwar Iqbal, associate scientist (public health sciences division) of ICDDR-B, also spoke at the function.