Dhaka Central International Hospital suspends services in protest against ‘harassment’ of principal
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Intern doctors and students at Dhaka Central International Medical College and Hospital have shut down all non-emergency medical services to protest an “attempt to force out” and "harass" their principal.
Following a series of incidents over the past few days, the interns and students launched the protest in the Shyamoli hospital on Wednesday morning, bdnews24.com reports.
The hospital authorities have dismissed two officials for “pressuring and humiliating” Principal ABM Abdul Matin to resign, but the protesters demand action against three more involved in the incident.
On Wednesday morning, the interns and students suspended all medical services except emergency ones to press their demand.
They bolted the entrance of the hospital cutting off access and initially declined to speak with journalists about the incident. They stressed that only journalists could enter if asked by “top authorities”.
One of the students said they demanded the removal of five people, including Director Sultan Mahmud, CEO Nasir Uddin, and Operations Manager Saiful Islam.
Around 12:30pm, the journalists were taken to the seventh-floor auditorium.
From a crowd of teachers, interns and students of the hospital present there, an intern, Tanjin Rahman, started speaking on a microphone but was intervened by the hospital Chairman MA Hai Chowdhury and Prof SM Idris Ali.
Later, Idris said on the microphone: “An unexpected incident happened yesterday (Tuesday). Many things lead up to an incident. We also do not want those who work with patients and serve people to protest over this incident. But we want respect.”
Asked what had happened or the identity of those involved in the incident, he said: “Nasir (CEO) is the main culprit. Nasir has fled due to this issue. He has been discharged.”
He noted that Sultan Mahmud had a host of allegations against him and upon realising his position, he voluntarily resigned and left.
Idris said Nasir and Sultan were among the five who the students want to be dismissed over “pressuring and humiliating” the principal for resignation.
The words were met with applause from everyone in the auditorium.
Idris added that a solution had been reached and the doctors would henceforth serve the patients and students would return to classes.
The protesters, however, did not join work past the afternoon.
Another teacher at the hospital, Nazneen Nahar said seven to 10 days ago, Bashar, the principal, was “pressured to resign”, but he did not comply.
“A person named Tajul joined a few days ago and tried to interfere in every matter. Without a resignation letter from the [current] principal, he [Tajul] tried to make someone else the principal.”
Once word spread, she said, the students began protesting, prompting the authorities to seek a week to speak to those allegedly involved and figure things out.
“In light of this assurance, the students went to class and a solution was reached. Yesterday (Tuesday), some people deceived the principal into taking him to a special building, shutting the door behind him and proceeding to humiliate him. He was then attacked by five to seven people and fell from the second floor.”
In the afternoon, final-year student Muaz Rahman told bdnews24.com that they had lodged a complaint against five people with the authorities, who took action against two of them without a decision on the rest.
“We spoke with the chairman and he asked for time on these three people. But we are reluctant to do that. The protests will continue.”
Sultan, Nasir, and Saiful could not be reached for comment.