Health sector corruption in the times of COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh: Newspapers as mirrors of society

Objective: This paper aimed to identify and explore the major areas of health-sector corruption during COVID-19 pandemic as revealed in the print media. Findings are expected to mitigate health sector corruption in the country and contribute to strengthening the health systems.Method: 2588 news articles on health topics were identified through scanning six leading newspapers in Bangladesh during Mar. 2020 to Mar. 2021. Of these, 97 news articles focusing on corruption in health system were selected for analysis.Findings: Findings reveal an all-embracing corruption at every stage, starting from procurement of medical supplies, to testing for COVID-19 to treatment and management of COVID-19 cases. The news papers reported about the low quality and general-purpose masks given to the frontline health workers, putting their personal protection from the virus at risk. Due to lack of stewardship and an effective monitoring system, quite a few private facilities were providing fake COVID-19 certificates, medicines and medical equipment at very high prices. For example, one particular hospital provided almost two thousand COVID-19 test certificates without testing. Although PPEs were originally sold at BDT 2000 per piece, double the amount was proposed for buying PPEs. Meropenem injection of the same quality was purchased by different government hospitals at unusually high prices. Among the measures taken to contain corruption during COVID-19 included filing cases, issuing arrest warrants and asking for submission of wealth statement and source of income of the accused persons. However, some of the accused eventually got released on bail.Conclusion: The media, as a mirror of the society, successfully made visible the underhand corruption that was happening even during the pandemic, fulfilling its obligations to the society. They faced quite some challenges in revealing related news, especially from the government whose initial reaction was of denial and indifference.Due to lack of transparency and accountability in the sector, the patients as well as the healthcare providers had to suffer a lot.