No ambulances, no way out at DMC

A strike by private ambulance operators over parking facilities at Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) left critically ill patients and bereaved families struggling to arrange transport on Tuesday, with some waiting for hours to transfer patients to other hospitals or take deceased relatives home.

The strike began after hospital authorities removed the operators’ ambulances from designated parking areas, according to Mohammad Shahadat Hossain, general secretary of the DMCH Private Ambulance Owners’ Association.

Speaking on Tuesday evening, Shahadat said the ambulances had initially been removed from the hospital after its new director, Brig Gen AKM Mohammad Farhad Hossain, took charge.

The operators were later asked to clean an area beneath the new hospital building for parking, where they installed CCTV cameras, lights and a gate. However, their vehicles were subsequently removed from that area as well.

He said the operators faced fines from traffic police when they parked their vehicles on nearby roads. Having spent several lakh taka on parking arrangements, they were now demanding a designated space inside the hospital.

Shahadat said they were willing to pay government revenue for each ambulance parked in the area beneath the new building. The strike would continue until their demand was met, he added.

The suspension of private ambulance services left patients and families facing difficulties across the hospital premises.

Mohammad Shaheen, who came from Narayanganj, said his 70-year-old grandmother, Halima Begum, died at the medicine department of the hospital’s new building around 3:30pm on Tuesday. He searched for an ambulance for more than three hours to take her body home but could not find one.

“I never imagined we would face such a situation after coming to a government hospital,” he said, adding that he had not seen any government ambulance available either.

Mohammad Monir Hossain, who came from Jatrabari, said his 22-year-old nephew, Mohammad Russell, died around 5pm while receiving treatment at the hospital. Russell had been brought to DMCH in critical condition from Mugda Medical College Hospital.

Monir said a hospital doctor suggested taking the body away in a van because no ambulance was available.

Abdul Ahad, who brought his seriously injured mother-in-law from Khulna, said she was referred to the National Institute of Kidney Diseases and Urology. He had been searching for an ambulance since noon but could not arrange one.

He said the family was worried that the delay in transferring the patient could worsen her condition.

Several DMCH employees, speaking on condition of anonymity, said some patients and deceased people had been taken away in auto-rickshaws, CNG-run three-wheelers and pickup vans since morning. Although ambulances had arrived from outside the hospital, patients and their relatives were still struggling to find available vehicles, they said.

The employees urged the hospital director to hold talks with ambulance operators to resolve the dispute.
Repeated attempts to contact DMCH Director Brig Gen AKM Mohammad Farhad Hossain by phone for comment went unanswered.