No qualms for patients

IT'S mind-boggling to see that doctors who should be caring for patients are making them suffer. In fact, as doctors busy themselves with strikes and acts of high-handedness, public health service goes through an epidemic of hostility from those in charge of catering for it. The trend is menacingly engulfing a large swathe of the country.
Rajshahi Medical College, Sir Salimullah Medical College and Mitford Hospital, BIRDEM and Barisal and Rangpur hospitals have been held hostage to doctors' agitation or strikes on various demands. As a result, treatment is denied to thousands of outdoor and indoor patients in various stages of illness, many requiring critical follow-ups. Not only the patients, their relatives and even journalists have also been harassed, beaten.
Matters coming to a head, civil society and rights bodies like Ain o Salish Kendro have expressed grave concern over the restive hospitals. Health Minister Mohammad Nasim has formed three committees to probe the incidents in Rajshahi, Mitford and BIRDEM hospitals. Formation of committees has done little to discipline the agitating doctors.  It's a question of collective mindset of coercion that seeks satisfaction of demands by making others suffer. Nobody is in a mood to heed good counsel. But those in the medical profession must be guided by its ethical code the mainstay of which is the Hippocratic oath.
Doctors may have their demands and grievances and there are ways to have them addressed without having to punish patients. Every hospital should have an internal troubleshooting mechanism to stave off denial of services.