Public health experts gathered at an international health conference in Dhaka, Bangladesh called for greater efforts to boost universal health coverage in the country.

Local and international public health leaders said Bangladesh needed to make stronger efforts towards achieving universal health coverage to not only ensure the quality of healthcare but its is affordability.

Among those who participated in the conference were Thailand’s Deputy Minister of Public Health Dr Somsak Chunaharas, World Federation of Association of Paediatric Surgeons President Dr DK Gupta, Diabetic Association of Bangladesh President Dr AK Azad Khan and Dr Kamran ul Baset of the Centre for Injury Prevention and Research, Bangladesh.

Economist Dr Hossain Zillur Rahman, executive chairman of the Power and Participation Research Centre, said government contribution to the health sector in Bangladesh was only 25%, which means that the universal health coverage agenda in the country needed to be scaled up.

In response to the calls from public health experts, Bangladesh Health Minister Mohammed Nasim, asked stakeholders to to cooperate with the government in order to achieve universal health coverage in the country.