Our Correspondent, Barishal :
Outdoor service at Barishal Sher-e-Bangla Medical College Hospital (SBMCH) closed from Monday (September 2) morning extending sufferings to the patients.
However, tickets were sold for a while around 8 am, but later they were closed again.
After visiting the hospital, it was found that patients suffered because the ticket counter for the outdoor patients was closed from 9:00 AM. Patients were not able to receive medical services due to lack of tickets. Then from 11:00, the chambers of the outdoor doctors also closed.
Many patients were seen leaving the hospital premises without receiving services.
The intern doctors said that they would stop the rest of the services except emergency services until the safety of the doctors is ensured.
So patients were seen standing in long queues in front of the ticket counter since morning. Many of them were children and elderly patients.
A young man named Khalil brought mother Zainul Begum from Amtli of Barguna district and said leg of his was broken, but she did not receive treatment even though she was forwarded urgently by local hospital to SBMCH emergency department. Imran Hossain brought the seven-day-old baby Rafsan from Jhalokathi Sadar. But till noon he did not see any doctor at outdoor.
During visit the reporter saw more than one thousand peopleincluding children, are waiting for treatment in outdoors section, but no doctor was found. On the other hand, the director of the hospital HM Saiful Islam at around 12 noon held meeting with the intern doctors for discussion with their demand. Members of the police and army were also present in the meeting.
Doctors of army medical core rushed to the spot to calm down the situation by talking with the angry doctors. After the meeting of angry doctors and interns with the hospital authority, it was decided to open all other departments except the outdoor patients unit.
However, the SBMCH director has confirmed that the treatment at emergency and other internal wards remain functioning round the clock on Monday.
The intern doctor Mashiur Rahmansaid that this hospital basically has 500 beds. But we treat about 3000 patients in the outdoor and indoor. Besides at least 1500 to 2000 patients in the remain in the hospital for the day.
But there are only 55 Ansars and 3 Polish security guards in this hospital – which makes it impossible to provide security to the doctors. We want assurances for the protection law with adequate security for the doctors during their working hours . We want justice for all those who attacked in Dhaka, Dr Mashiur added.
