Doctors cannot make patients suffer
When doctors at Birdem General Hospital went on a strike last week to protest an assault on their colleagues by outsiders over the death of a patient, the question of medical professionalism and ethics was raised anew. That question is simple: to what extent are doctors justified in going off work, depriving hundreds of patients of treatment, simply because they are angry at the behaviour of some unruly people?
We are in full agreement with those rights activists and physicians who have made it clear that staying away from their professional responsibilities as a means of protest is fundamentally an instance of great irresponsibility on the part of doctors. Indeed, every professional in this country as also elsewhere operates on a code of ethics. Unfortunately, all too often, doctors in Bangladesh have resorted to such strikes without embarrassment or remorse of any kind. That is clearly not acceptable. There are legal means and official procedures through which they can register their grievances, just like the aggrieved patients or their relatives can.
It is also the responsibility of the authorities to come down hard on those elements which, when a death occurs in a hospital, swiftly resort to taking law into their own hands.
As for our doctors, must they so easily forget their Hippocratic oath?
The matter should be probed with the purpose of devising ways and means to avert any recurrence and improving doctor-patient relationship.
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