‘Assault on physician’: DMCH doctors postpone movement for a week

Doctors and staff who were continuing protest suspending outdoor services of Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) today postponed their movement for the next seven days based on an assurance of the health minister to meet their demands.

Earlier on Sunday, the doctors and staff of the DMCH started the movement with suspending emergency treatment after relatives of a patient, who died at the hospital on Sunday, attacked on the doctors claiming the death was caused by wrong treatment.

“We postponed our movement as Health Minister Mohammad Nasim assured us to meet our five-point demand including workplace security and punishment of the attackers,” Mosharraf Hossain Sijan, General Secretary of DMCH Intern Doctors’ Association, told The Daily Star.

The minister went to DMCH to see the doctors and Ansar members who were injured during the Sunday’s attack.

Outdoor treatment of the DMCH remained suspended for around four-and-half hours today, depriving of patients who came to the hospital from different parts of the country.

Intern doctors locked up the gate of the outdoor department of the hospital around 9:30am and started agitating there, demanding workplace security and punishment of those assaulted some doctors and staff over the death of a patient on Sunday.

Doctors and medical officers also joined the demonstration after keeping the outdoor services of the hospital for an hour from 8:30am.

Several hundred patients who bought tickets and queued for getting services were stunned as the doctors came out, locking the door of the hospital.

Witnesses said most of them had to go back after waiting there for a long time. Several hundred others who arrived later were also deprived of treatment at the outdoor department because the strike was on.

As majority of the serious patients come to DMCH from all over the country, many serious patients had to leave the emergency unit for another hospital.

The hospital sources said on an average 2500 tickets are sold to the patients daily while the number was only 552 today. Some were seen walking around with tickets for hours while many expressed their frustration for not getting tickets and treatment.

Septuagenarian Khairun Nahar flanked by her daughter Sheuly rushed to the outdoor department around 10:00am from Lalbagh but was denied treatment.

The yesterday’s demonstration ended around 2:00pm when outdoor service of the hospital stops usually.

Hospital authorities filed a case with Shahbagh Police Station accusing four named and seven to eight unnamed persons. The named accused—Iqbal Hossian Tipu, Riaz Uddin, Maksud Ahemd and Faruk Hossain-- were arrested and sent to jail on Monday.