DMCH doctors halt work after assault on colleague

Doctors in training at Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) are conducting a work stoppage after intern doctors were beaten following the death of a student and a kidney patient and a clash between two groups of criminals in a ward.

Doctors at the hospital have expressed solidarity with the programme, resulting in the halting of all services, except at the emergency department, since Sunday morning.

As a result, patients and families coming to the largest hospital in the country are suffering greatly, reports bdnews24.com.

A doctor at DMCH said, “Initially, the intern doctors called a strike. Later, other doctors also expressed their solidarity.”

“As a result service at the indoor, outdoor, and all other departments – aside from the emergency department – has been halted.”

Sohel Rana Rony, former vice president of the recently defunct Intern Doctors Council, said the work stoppage had begun on Saturday night.

“We are suffering from a lack of security due to the current situation in the hospital. We demand that those involved should be identified using CCTV footage and punished.”

A student from a private university was admitted to the hospital on Friday night and died there on Saturday morning. The family and loved ones of the patient then beat the intern doctors.

A doctor in the hospital’s surgery department said: “After the student died, his loved ones beat a doctor all the way to the director’s office. We are concerned about our safety. As things stand, we support the interns’ strike. We stand with them.”

Rony said, “On Saturday, when a kidney patient under treatment at the Department of Urology died, their relatives beat intern doctors too.”

“Then, early on Sunday morning, two criminal groups entered a ward at the hospital and clashed, beating each other.”

At least 200 intern doctors service patients at DMCH.

A doctor in the emergency department said, “Intern doctors are extremely important in providing care to patients. A large portion of them are not at the hospital now. Of course that has an impact.”

The hospital’s director, Brig Gen Md Asaduzzaman, said: “The situation at the hospital is not good.”