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Restriction on imports due to dollar crunch has affected every sector of the economy. Even so, imports of some essential goods continue. A study shows that some 25 products made up about fifty per cent of the entire import made in FY 2022-23 through our main seaport in Chattogram. Those include cotton as raw material for the textile sector, daily essentials like wheat, edible oil, soybean, lentils, peas and then fuel oils, fertilisers, construction materials, steel etc. Kitchen essentials, of course, meet our physical needs, which help us keep healthy and alive. Fuel oils keep industries, transports and power generators, which are all about the modern industrial society, functioning. So do the construction materials. And the importance of fertilisers for agriculture cannot be overemphasised. Obviously, those goods were imported in larger quantities compared to the remaining half of the imports worth Tk.2.30 trillion (total import being worth Tk.4.62 trillion) because of their importance.
However, of the 4,788 types of products imported in FY23, according to a study, there is no mention of how many of those were medical equipment and related products. Needless to say, medical apparatuses used in the country's health clinics and hospitals are imported. But were those imported items listed as essential ones also included medical equipment? It could not be known. But going by the reports in the media, it does not appear to be so. In that case, hospitals and health clinics in the public as well as private sector should be under serious stress, because the not-so-essential items' claim for import-dollars would get less attention than the essential ones from the authorities concerned. According to reports, it is actually the case. In fact, hospitals of the country are facing an acute shortage of medical implements needed for heart diseases, orthopaedics, eye diseases, cancer, neurological problems and general medicine, to name but a few. In consequence, many hospitals have been compelled to reduce the number of surgeries, unless it is an emergency. The necessary instruments are in short supply as there are fewer dollars available to buy those.
Medical apparatus importers complained that they were hard put to opening Letters of Credit in banks. But this is bad news, especially for heart patients needing surgery. Notably, the number of deaths from heart-related diseases is the highest in the country among all other non-infectious diseases. And the medical instrument importers and suppliers say that of about Tk.100 billion worth of medical appliances used in the country every year, 90 per cent are related to heart diseases. The devices used for managing heart problem include ring, valve, pacemaker and oxygenator. The reports say, annually, there is a demand for close to 50,000 pieces of these devices in the country. And, of those, three quarters are heart rings. But only about half of the demand for these devices could be met now. Sometimes, individuals, to meet emergency, bring one or two pieces of the devices indispensable for heart surgery by air. But that involves huge costs.
Anyone familiar with the subject knows that devices like oxygenator are essential during heart surgery. But should dollar shortage be an excuse for not allowing import of few life-saving medical devices used in heart surgery? How much do they cost? This is indeed incomprehensible, when there is no visible dollar scarcity for items that the nation could do without in these difficult times.
The government needs to look into this important issue from its highest level. And if private importers are a problem, then the government should itself import the medical devices to meet the demand of the health sector.