WHO supports the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) to assess and award the best performing health facilities in the country.
On the 8th of October, 51 health facilities from all tiers of the public health system in the country have received Health Minister’s National Award 2019, recognizing and promoting best practices in the Bangladesh health system.
WHO Bangladesh/ C. Bercaru
“The main goal of the competition is to build resilient health systems in Bangladesh by implementing healthy competition among peers to improve their performance in service delivery and facility management.
The improvement in service delivery motivated by such non-financial incentives can be shared with other countries in the region as one of the best practices from Bangladesh. It is encouraging to see the importance given to this award system by Honorable Health Minister and its value recognized by all health managers.” Said Dr Bardan Jung Rana, WHO representative to Bangladesh during the ceremony.
WHO Bangladesh/ C. Bercaru
Health Minister’s National Award is based on routine data from DHIS2 and the physical versification conducted by the Management Information System (MIS) unit from the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) and WHO. Through this initiative performances of health facilities and health offices at different tiers of the systems are measured, scored, ranked, and, finally, the best ones are recognized.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has been supporting Bangladesh to strengthen the health systems readiness and performance as one of the fundamental needs towards the advancement of Universal Health Coverage in Bangladesh.
“I congratulate all of those who made an outstanding effort and demonstrated good leadership and motivation in providing health services in the field. I am confident that the awards will further motivate the best-performing facilities to continue the good work and will inspire others to perform better and be the winners in the upcoming years.” added Dr Rana.
WHO Bangladesh/ C. Bercaru
Launched in 2014, this annual non-financial scheme incentivizes health managers to improve practices within available resources in the system, stimulates innovative management, the generation of better results, and enhances improvement of quality health services .
The initiative progressively evolved making use of internet technologies and an online system for measuring and scoring is now publicly accessible through a real-time dashboard.
The Department for International Development (DFID) of the UK Government supported the scheme, including the Health Minister’s National Award 2019.
“Compared to other years, this year has been very challenging particularly for all the frontline health workers. On behalf of WHO, I would like to thank the health workers for your dedication and hard work in responding to COVID-19 and also for maintaining the continuity in the delivery of essential health services. On this award ceremony day, I must say that all the frontline health workers are champions and lifesavers. Hence, all are winners in many ways.” Dr Rana concluded.
WHO is committed to working with the MOHFW and development partners to further support this initiative for improving the quality of health care services in Bangladesh, to recognize and promote best practices within the health system.