Accepted Panels

Access to health facilities to the poor section of population in Bangladesh has been a challenge for many decades. The Government of Bangladesh along with few other development partners has been adopting different measures to enhance the peoples’ participation in this regard. There are several barriers in the access to public health in Bangladesh, such as; a) physical barrier; b) economic or financial barrier; c) psychosocial barrier; d) information/knowledge barrier; and e) health service delivery system barrier (Barkat and Sabina: 2016). The main barriers to the access of health services in Bangladesh are inadequate services and poor quality of existing facilities. The other shortcomings that are often found include: shortage of medicine supplies, nepotism by the health providers in supplying essential medicines, shortage of health care providers in the government facilities, long travel distance to the facilities, and long waiting times after reaching the facilities. Short consultation time, lack of empathy of the health professionals, unprofessional attitude to the beneficiaries, aggressive pursuit for monetary gains, widespread disregard for the suffering patients are some other major concerns for the health care delivery in Bangladesh.  Such concerns and failures can play a powerful role in shaping patients’ negative attitudes and dissatisfaction with health-care service providers and health system in Bangladesh (Mohiuddin 2020). This study deals to understand the complexity in accessing health care delivery particularly to the poor in Sylhet and Sunamganj districts of Bangladesh.  A number of In Depth Interviews (IDIs), Key Informant Interviews (KIIs), and Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) were conducted to understand the health care delivery options in Sylhet.