Honorary doctors and interns of Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) on Monday withdrew their 48-hour strike called in protest against attacks on six honorary doctors on Saturday night and resumed the duties at 8 pm on Monday, following a decision taken at an emergency meeting, said Mostafa Rezowan Siddique, an intern doctor of the hospital. DMCH Director Mustafizur Rahman confirmed the news.
‘Since Bangladesh Medical Association has announced its protest programme, we are expressing our solidarity with the association and calling off our own programme,’ said Rezowan.
Earlier DMCH honorary doctors and interns in the morning extended their strike by 24 hours till Wednesday morning, adding to the woes of hundreds of patients. On the other hand, Bangladesh Medical Association called a countrywide one hour work abstention on Wednesday.
The health services in the country’s largest hospital were virtually paralyzed on Monday. Not a single patient came to the outpatient department of the hospital and eventually the services at the emergency department were also heavily disrupted.
On a visit to the hospital, this correspondent found the ticket selling counter closed. The strike had started on Saturday midnight with the more than 1000 honorary medical officers and interns closing emergency services and in demand of arresting the perpetrators who attacked five honorary doctors at Chankharpool area on Saturday night. On Sunday, they called a fresh 48-hour long strike till Tuesday 12:30pm.
Meanwhile, BMA president Mahmud Hasan at a press conference announced the one-hour work abstention on Wednesday in all the hospitals and clinics in the country to protest the attack on doctors.
‘The emergency services will however remain out of the purview of the strike,’ he said while announcing the programme at the press conference held in the BMA Bhaban in the capital.
UNB adds: Bangladesh Medical Association (BMA) on Monday announced that doctors will observe a work abstention programme from 12 noon to 1pm on Wednesday across the country protesting the recent attacks on doctors.
BMA Secretary General Dr M Iqbal Arsnal declared the one-hour programme on Monday at a press conference at BMA auditorium at the city’s Topkhana Road.
The announcement came two days after an attack on an honorary doctor, Mominul, of Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
The BMA leader said the doctors will go on work abstention from 12 noon to 1pm on May 14 wearing black badges in all the hospitals of the country. And they will form a human chain in the capital’s Shahbagh area at the same time.
Besides, specialist physicians will go on work abstention in the private chambers from 5pm to 7pm on Thursday, he added.
Dr Iqbal said the recent anarchy in the country’s hospitals unleashed at the instigation of a vested quarter.
He said a total of 22 incidents of attack on doctors took place across the country in the last six months. But, he said, in many cases patients’ relatives were not involved in the attacks and not even in filing cases against the doctors.
Addressing the press conference, BMA president Dr Mahmud Hasan said the incidents occurred in recent days spread throughout the country like a contagious disease.
On Saturday night, some miscreants attacked Mominul and beat up him with sticks indiscriminately after he identified himself as a DMCH doctor, leaving him injured at Chankharpool in the city.
