Myat Nyarna Soe is not the only one to notice that little has changed at the Ministry of Health. The increase in budget has largely been used on building or renovating structures. Management within the Ministry is unchanged and dysfunctional. And did anyone mention the fact that there is no rational multiyear plan for health?
An increased budget, management changes, and an operational health development plan would be a good new beginning. Has the health platform of the opposition party been published yet as the election approaches?
Jamie
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Health budget up but challenges remain
Shwe Yee Saw Myint
The Myanmar Times
5 May 2014
Signs of improvement, but still struggling: That’s the prognosis for Myanmar’s public health system, which is fighting to recover from decades of underinvestment and mismanagement under socialist and military rule.
While President U Thein Sein’s government has made increased social spending a key plank of its reform strategy – and the health budget has increased more than 800 percent over the past five years as a result – the impact has only been marginal, and structural challenges remain.
Experts say that while the budget needs to be increased further still from the K652 billion (about US$680 million) allocated for 2014-15 by parliament on March 29, spending must also be more effectively allocated.
U Myat Nyarna Soe, a medical doctor and Amyotha Hluttaw representative from Yangon, said much of the money was being “wasted” because of the ministry’s mismanagement. While the ministry has eight departments, including health planning, medical science, medical research, traditional medicine and the Food and Drug Administration, about 90pc of the budget goes to the Department of Health.
“This department spends a lot of money on new buildings and renovating old ones,” he said. “But we need to invest in more than just buildings. For example, we need to improve provision of medicine, health services and research. I cannot understand why the government focuses so much on buildings.”
However, this was disputed by Dr Nwe Ni Ohn, a director in the ministry’s Health Planning Department, who said the Health Department receives about 75pc of the ministry’s total allocation.
She said budget increases since 2011 had initially been used to provide medicines free of charge and to replace outdated medical equipment. This financial year the additional funds will be used to renovate all hospital and rural health centres. A particular focus will be sanitation, with the ministry hoping to replace hospital toilets and ensure all facilities have access to clean water.
Budget allocation is an issue not only between departments, however. According to the Burma Children Medical Fund Health, services continue to be heavily concentrated in larger cities. Citing 2012 figures from the Ministry of Health, it said last year that the number of rural health centres has barely changed since 1988 – from 1337 to 1565. However, around two-thirds of the population lives in rural areas. Service provision in rural and, in particular, remote areas also suffers because many doctors and nurses are unwilling to be assigned to these places.
Link: http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/home-page/142-in-depth/10271-health-budget-up-but-challenges-remain-2.html
