Background: Generally health care delivery facilities and services in rural Bangladesh are characterized by numerous well-staffed but under-utilized and under-served public facilities of unsatisfactory quality, private services of high cost and doubtful quality, and unmet basic health needs of the population.
Methods: Surveys indicate just 13 percent of the sick seek care from public health facilities. This percentage is true also for poor households even though they suffer higher morbidity and mortality rates. Declines in the use of such facilities have predictably resulted in adverse outcomes for rural populations, with vulnerable groups most affected. A number of factors are known to be responsible: mainly health system deficiencies such as too few doctors; the lack of essential drugs; the quality and content of services; and the access to and use of services. Other drawbacks are limited accountability, low levels of productivity and motivation of staff, limited responsiveness to client needs and limited community involvement. Increasingly factors such as human resource management and related motivational barriers are seen as playing a significant part in determining health outcomes of rural populations. Such factors receive emphasis in the presentation.
Results: The presentation outlines the steps for effective HR management during the ongoing health sector reform in Bangladesh. It provides policy makers and others with sufficient tools to improve and strengthen personnel administration and performance management of Human Resources in order to insure that staff are better motivated to reach and meet the health needs of the rural populace, including vulnerable groups.
Learning Objectives: 1. To assess the reasons for poor utilization of district level public health care facilities and services in rural Bangladesh, including their access by vulnerable populations (the poor, children and women and the elderly).
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.