Governance and Corruption in Public Health Care Systems: Experience of Some Developing Countries Including Bangladesh

Health is recently recognized as an important aspect to ensure economic growth and to reduce poverty. Increasing corruption in the health sector of developing countries is reducing effective use of scarce public resource. This review article is an effort to identify the causes, sources and consequence of corruption in the health sector of developing countries, including Bangladesh. Health sector is vulnerable to corruption mainly due to asymmetry of information and an inelastic demand for services, decentralized service, human resources management. Corruption limits economic growth, it also has a direct negative effect on access and quality of patient care. Studies have shown that corruption has a significant, negative effect on health indicators such as infant and child mortality. Good governance is therefore essential to reduce corruption in the health sector.