Doctors on fresh strike: Patients go back home unattended
Unattended patients going back home following DMCH doctors abstain from work on Sunday.
DU Correspondent :
The Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) was virtually paralysed on Sunday as the interns and honorary doctors went on wildcat strike stopping even emergency and other medical services at the hospital putting the patients to untold sufferings.
The interns and honorary doctors also called for 48-hour work abstention protesting against an attack on one of the honorary doctors on Saturday night.
Doctors and interns at the DMCH had enforced similar strike also on May 6 causing immense sufferings to those seeking medical care, it should be recalled. Many serious patients were seen being shifted to other hospitals following the strike.
The sudden work abstention by honorary doctors and interns following the Saturday’s incident also put the patients to serious problems. The emergency service of the hospital was also closed as a result of which those seeking emergency attention had no option but to go elsewhere.
Masudur Rahman, an attendant of a patient, who had been to the Emergency Ward of the DMCH with his brother who met an accident at Savar, had to move to another hospital, as he was refused entry to the Emergency.
What is our fault, why we were deprived of doctors’ attention, he said posing a question.
DMCH Director Brigadier General Mustafizur Rahman declined to make any comment to the newsmen. BMA secretary general Dr. Iqbal Arsalan, however, said that they have asked the doctors to provide all the medical facilities and formed emergency squad to provide emergency treatment.
According to the DMCH authority about 1000 patients visit the outdoor department of the hospital daily. On an average between 50- 60 patients visit the emergency department of the hospital daily.
The trouble on Saturday night originated when six honorary doctors were beaten up at Chankerpool when they were returning to the hospital after having their dinner at a restaurant of the area. Suddenly some unidentified persons equipped with sticks swooped on them. DMCH surgery department honorary doctor Mominul Islam was seriously injured in the attack. As his condition was critical, so he was taken to the intensive care unit of the DMCH.
Protesting the incident, interns and doctors brought out processions inside the hospital’s casualty department and locked up the emergency department’s gate early Sunday. Medical services at the emergency and outdoor department of the hospital remained virtually suspended for the whole day following the wild cat strike called by honorary doctors and interns to realize the demand for arrest of persons responsible for the attack on Saturday night.
The interns and honorary doctors said that their strike would continue till Tuesday afternoon. They said that they were thinking of throwing a countrywide strike of honorary and intern doctors. ‘We have requested our colleagues in other hospitals to start strike at their respective organisations’, Fazle Bari, Medical Officer of DMCH told The New Nation on Sunday evening. ‘We are thinking of country wide strike to protest the frequent attacks on doctors by attendants of patients and also by outsiders ‘ he said.
The doctors also had a meeting with health services Director General Deen Muhammad Nurul Haque, Bangladesh Medical Association secretary general Iqbal Arslan and DMCH director Brigadier General Mustafizur Rahman prior to the announcement of strike for Sunday and Monday at the DMCH.
The Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) was virtually paralysed on Sunday as the interns and honorary doctors went on wildcat strike stopping even emergency and other medical services at the hospital putting the patients to untold sufferings.
The interns and honorary doctors also called for 48-hour work abstention protesting against an attack on one of the honorary doctors on Saturday night.
Doctors and interns at the DMCH had enforced similar strike also on May 6 causing immense sufferings to those seeking medical care, it should be recalled. Many serious patients were seen being shifted to other hospitals following the strike.
The sudden work abstention by honorary doctors and interns following the Saturday’s incident also put the patients to serious problems. The emergency service of the hospital was also closed as a result of which those seeking emergency attention had no option but to go elsewhere.
Masudur Rahman, an attendant of a patient, who had been to the Emergency Ward of the DMCH with his brother who met an accident at Savar, had to move to another hospital, as he was refused entry to the Emergency.
What is our fault, why we were deprived of doctors’ attention, he said posing a question.
DMCH Director Brigadier General Mustafizur Rahman declined to make any comment to the newsmen. BMA secretary general Dr. Iqbal Arsalan, however, said that they have asked the doctors to provide all the medical facilities and formed emergency squad to provide emergency treatment.
According to the DMCH authority about 1000 patients visit the outdoor department of the hospital daily. On an average between 50- 60 patients visit the emergency department of the hospital daily.
The trouble on Saturday night originated when six honorary doctors were beaten up at Chankerpool when they were returning to the hospital after having their dinner at a restaurant of the area. Suddenly some unidentified persons equipped with sticks swooped on them. DMCH surgery department honorary doctor Mominul Islam was seriously injured in the attack. As his condition was critical, so he was taken to the intensive care unit of the DMCH.
Protesting the incident, interns and doctors brought out processions inside the hospital’s casualty department and locked up the emergency department’s gate early Sunday. Medical services at the emergency and outdoor department of the hospital remained virtually suspended for the whole day following the wild cat strike called by honorary doctors and interns to realize the demand for arrest of persons responsible for the attack on Saturday night.
The interns and honorary doctors said that their strike would continue till Tuesday afternoon. They said that they were thinking of throwing a countrywide strike of honorary and intern doctors. ‘We have requested our colleagues in other hospitals to start strike at their respective organisations’, Fazle Bari, Medical Officer of DMCH told The New Nation on Sunday evening. ‘We are thinking of country wide strike to protest the frequent attacks on doctors by attendants of patients and also by outsiders ‘ he said.
The doctors also had a meeting with health services Director General Deen Muhammad Nurul Haque, Bangladesh Medical Association secretary general Iqbal Arslan and DMCH director Brigadier General Mustafizur Rahman prior to the announcement of strike for Sunday and Monday at the DMCH.