Medical equipment making can thrive in Bangladesh: Mousumi Islam

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Quality medical devices and equipment, a prerequisite for universal healthcare, are in short supply in Bangladesh, often denying people right diagnosis and proper treatment, said Mousumi Islam, a leader of the country’s manufacturers of such tools.
The government has recently recognised the manufacturing of medical devices and equipment as an industry, which are needed nowadays more than ever before, particularly after the Covid pandemic exposed health sector shortcomings such as the lack of lifesaving medical equipment.
Mousumi Islam, a key figure in sensitising policymakers to the need for having a medical devices and equipment industry in the country, has brought together major manufacturers under a banner styled as Medical Equipment and Devices Manufacturers and Exporters of Bangladesh with the hope to lead a change in the healthcare sector.
Right diagnosis means fewer hospital visits and less health expenditure, explained Mousumi Islam, referring to the exorbitant out-of-pocket health expenditure in Bangladesh, which is one of the highest in the world, with people spending Tk 68.5 from their pocket for every Tk 100 health expense.
Abnormally high diagnostic and medicine costs are responsible for the high out-of-pocket health expenditure, according to an official account.
‘Right treatment is impossible without right diagnosis. And right diagnosis requires quality medical equipment and their appropriate operation,’ said Mousumi, also the managing director of Promixco, a key medical devices and equipment manufacturer in the country, in an interview with New Age on August 3.
Mousumi reminded the widespread complaint in the health sector about patients spending a fortune on diagnosis with physicians often prescribing too many medicines.
Many patients even complain about undergoing same tests over and over again before changing their mind to go abroad for treatment, she said.
In 2017, pointed out Mousumi, people seeking treatment in India alone spent about Tk 5,500 crore, which doubled by 2019 before the pandemic struck, limiting overseas travels.
Beside the import of substandard medical equipment, she said, the lack of skilled manpower for operating imported medical machinery also contributed to this situation.
‘Wrong diagnosis misleads physicians, resulting in the prescription of wrong or unnecessary medicines, while the actual diseases thrive silently,’ said Mousumi.
The problem could easily be addressed by the government patronising the manufacturing of quality medical devices and equipment at home, she said.