As part of the Bangladesh Health and Population Sector Programme (HPSP), CIET, with support from the UK Department for International Development (DFID), collected quantitative and qualitative information about the use, experience and perceptions of the four district hospitals and the medical college hospital in Sylhet division. These were the pilot hospitals for the Hospital Improvement Initiative which set out to make hospital services more client-centred and responsive to needs, especially as regards the poor, women and children, and be more accountable to the communities they serve.

 

CIET conducted a baseline survey in 2000 and follow-up survey in 2003. The surveys sought the experiences of communities near to the hospitals, as well as hospital inpatients and outpatients. The 2003 follow-up revealed improvements in perceptions and experience of services from the hospitals, During the same period the perceptions and experience of government health services deteriorated in the country generally (see Health and Population Sector Programme), suggesting that this improvement is likely to be related to the HII programme in these hospitals.