First World Healthcare by Third World Provider: Position of Bangladesh

Abstract

Despite being a third world country, Bangladesh has a huge prospect of providing modern, advanced healthcare in cheap rates. It has started that journey by building new health infrastructures, strengthening primary health care, increasing outputs of doctors, nurses and paramedics, developing a strong health information system and encouraging public-private partnerships. With increasing GDP, health status of people has also been improved as evidenced by achieving targets of the health related indicators in Millennium Development Goals. In spite of having lower per capita health expenditure than neighboring countries, Bangladeshi people have achieved higher life expectancy at birth with progressively strengthened health system. This country is developing resources at a fast pace to attract the medical tourists challenging other Asian countries popular for medical tourism. Bangladesh needs to make curative sector stronger to earn massive sum of foreign currency and emerge as a country of medical tourism in near future.